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8. ©. Box 1095 
Jieru IN 46970 


@ctoher 1993 $1.95/ieane $18/Poar 


% UPDATE COMPUTER SYSTEMS MAGAZINE # 


UPDATE COMPUTER SYSTEHS is Edited and Published by Frank and 
Carol Davis of P.O. Box 1895, Peru, IN 46978 USA. The phone 
number is 317-473-8831 for both voice and fax, with normal phone 
hours being between 5 P.M. and 9:38 P.M, Eastern Tine during the 
week and noon to 6 P.H. on weekends, Please use the answering 
machine if we are not home, 


Most answers to questions left on 
the machine will be by mail, long distance charges are too 
costly for a small magazine. 


Hailing date of the magazine: all issues will be mailed out near 
the 28th of the months of October, January, April and July. All 
mailings within the USA are by bulk mail and may take a fow 
weeks to reach you at the most. Those wishing to have faster 
service may pay $4 extra for First Class Mail. The present rate 
for North America is $18 in USS, and $22 for the rest of the 
world. Back issues of the magazine are available for $16 per 
year in North America and $18 elsewhere Cit is cheaper to mail a 
bunch as opposed to one issue at a time). There are four issues 
to a year, with each year of a subscription starting in October 
and ending with the July issue, at which time your subscription 
renewal is due. Timely renewals are what keep us in businesst 


Assistance in publishing this magazine is provided by you the 
readers, many of whom have contributed often in the way of 
reviews and articles. He offer you our heartfelt thanks. Our 
main assistant locally is longtime friend and colleague, Eliad 
P. Hannum, Poet and Psychologist, as well as Sinclair computer 
user. Hany thanks to our regulars such as Mike Felerski, Bill 
Cable, Peter Hale, Paul Holmgren, Al Feng, Don Lambert, Bob 
Hartung and many others. You are all welcome to submit material 
for inclusion in the magazine. Please make all hard copy 
submissions letter or NLQ; no draft print copies, as we do not 
have much time for re-typing. Send at least two copies hard copy 
and the article or artwork on disk where possible. Mo audio tape 
submissions, as we do not use tape as a media, please. Try to 
avoid flowery or hard to read fonts...unless you are showing us 
a sample of the output of a program. If artwork is to be 
included in the article, please let us know in what order you 
think it should be displayed. 


Those wishing to place ads in UPBATE MAGAZINE: He have two ways 
of handling ads. ONE, we will do reciprocal ads for other 
publications (generally on a year for year basis, with you 
sending us a copy of the issues the ad is placed in}. The other 
way is to purchase ad space from us, with the following rates in 
effect for now: $15 per quarter page; $25 per half page; and $48 
per full page ad. This is per issue. For inclusion in all four 
issues, you pay for three issues, in advance, and get the fourth 
ad free. Should you have questions on this please contact Frank 
Davis, by mail or phone as listed above. 


He hope to be of service to you. Thank youf 


wevinnsnnres nti enti oS et AO EIT TT LOOT IIT it ceeeelleinemmeaieiie. einem a | senate igre vegan ton 


KK KK 


The computer that an article concerns is marked by 
using the following mark at the start of the page: 
TS = article for T2068 or Spectrum: L = article for 
QL; ZX = article for TS109@Q0, ZX31, TS15H@; 85 = 
article for the Z88. 


Front cover art by Abed Kahale of CATUG, the Chicago area user group 


GI- Page 1: Directory of articles in October Issue 

GI- Page 2 Editorial by FWD 

GI- Page 3 Dayton Show Report byF W. Dams 

GI- Page 5S Computer Classics - Ad 

GI- Page 5. Q2X - Ad 

TS- Page 6: PNET (Barcode Label Maker) - Botte Cap Software - Ad 

TS- Page 7: An Electronic Spreadsheet: Functon and Applicaton by Paul Shelley 


GI- Page 13: Business Cards— dealers, publications, etc. 

TS- Page 14. Spreadsheet Calculator - APR Software -Ad for TS2068 & T$1000 

TS- Page 15. Cycle Accounting ~ AFR Software - Ad for TS2068 & T$1000 

TS- Page 16 Keeping Records by Abed Kahale 

TS- Page 19: 206 Display Block -Moves by Bob Hartung 

GI- Page 20: RMG Ad 

QL- Page 21: QUANTA - Application and library revisions 

GI- Page 23: PRO/FILE - On The QL by Kenton Garrett 

GI- Page 24: RMG Update News 

QL- Page 25: Archive Series - Part 14 (Cable Column) by Bill Cable 

QL- Page 27 QL Corner by Bob Gilder of LIST 

QL- Page 29. QLuSTer v5. 105 by Al Feng (revised version!) 

QL- Page 30: QLuMSi DOS v4.20 by Al Feng (revised version!) 

GI- Page 32: Mechanical Affinity - Ad 

Ql- Page 34 QL Tidbits and es Since The Last Issue by E. P. Wannum 

QL- Page 36: Superbasic Data Types (so urce unknown) 

QL- Page 37, Qubbesoft P/D Ad & Kaiser Ad 

QL- Page 38 QL Corner by Bob Gilder of LIST 

GI- Page 39: T/SNUG Information About and Contacts 

88- Page 40: First Time Pro cedure For Your Z88 from Cambridge 

GI- Page 42: Help Wanted/ For Sale/ Items Needed 

TS- Page 44. 24-Fin Bit Image Graphics for 24-Fin or Bubble Jet Printers in 
Epson Emulation by Larry Crawford 

88- Page 48: Bechager ue Batteries with the Z-88 from 288 User 

88- Page 48: (Z88) Mem ory Expansion from 288 User 

88- Page 49: Woodward Technolo sy - Double Whammy - Ad 

GI- Page 50: QL Survivors Source Book & 288 Source Book - Ad 


Back Covers -TS2068 & QL Issue Disks 


OCTOBER EDITORIAL by Frank Davis 


Welcome to the beginning of anothersmeshing year of QL, 132068, 288, and a dash of 
751000 c omputing. | hope for this to be our best year yet A few of you may not have realized it, 
but in the area of the QL and the 288, the maturity of the machines is beginning to pay off very well. 
In this issue and the next few I hope to show you just what] mean. | waltnotbe leaving out the users 
of the TS1000 and the TS2068 We wall explore some of the options open to youand the future of 
these great little machines. They can have a future, if youare willing to make itso. Many things are 
happening to these computers that those who have not patched into the network of Sinclair users 
just do not know about, One way to stay atop all thisis through magazines, suchas 288 EPROM, 
IQLR, QUANTA, T/SNUG newsletter, user Soup newsletters, and most dear to my heart, UPDATE 
MAGAZINE! I honestly believe that UPDATE gives the most balanced, up to date view on Sinclair 
computers in the world. We are the only one | know that now covers them all - from the 288, 
Spectrum, QL, QXL, TS1000, ZX81, T52068, and one of our main areas is the disk systems 
available for these machines. We try to present user- generated software that you can use, and have 
a place we canall come together to express ways of making these machines continue to be active 
and useful in our lives. They are not the latest whiz bang off the production line, this is tue. But 
ecologically speaking they work and they can be upgraded in major ways, as opposed to thrown 
away! Most of the time another user or company canshow you whatto do 

For now, I once again step down off my soap box to say hello to all of you. Carol and 
have entered into our 4th year of editing and producing UPDATE. It seems to have changed in many 
ways from when Bill Jones first brought this magazine to life 7 years ago. Inmany ways it has 
remained the same, asa voice for Sinclair users. We try not to favor any certain machine or disk 
operating system, but rather to present all we receive thatis fit and ready to print. In this way we 
give vent to all of the machines and try to balance the content. I even try to limit the editonals 
from rambling fortoo many pages. The editorial is meant to be the editors view on things and is the 
only chance I'uy to give myself. The rest of the magazine wies to be fairand objective on programs 
and hardware. If you do not see your hanes DOS or drive system being actively supported in 
UPDATE, itis because no one has submitted anything, not because Ido not like it. Unlike some 
clubs or user groups where some folks try to be snobbish over which machine they think is best or 
should be the only one, we give credence to all of Sir Clives orphan children. 

Those of you who have closely read the pages of UPDATE and IQLR have noticed that the 
QL does not have quite as many programmers, hardware hackers and dealers as were here 7 or 8 
years ago. Thatis true. What we do have noware much more sophisticated and useable hardware 
and software. Those who have used PERFECTION and TEXTS? as word processors know that they 
are far beyond what we were lo o kang etin 1984-5. Quill is still a good program, and now even more 
readily available as EXCHANGE (the latest and fastest version of all f our PSION programs all 
combined to work together) has been released to the Public Domain. Itis notmy ert processor of 
choice, as] like to use move fonts and sizes of type than ithas available. Another example of 
program maturity is the case of LINEDESIGN and QDESIGN 2, versus some of the early art and 
text programs for the QL. Both use vector fonts, which means that whenenlarged, no clanty is 
lost. In earlier programs, they apnea choppy and grainy when enlarged, and smudged and hard to 
read when made smaller. With LINEDESIGN you can even import fonts meant for other machines 
With Qdesign, you can purchase a VectorEdit program to create more vector fonts. Bothallow the 
easy import of graphics and clipart. Publishers Pack from Text87 is another such wonder . 

hose who have a TS2068 will remember the early days of MSCRIPT and TASWORD 

They seemed great at first, but soon were seenas hard to use and lacking in features as most of us 
migrated to disk based sytems. Well, as you should all know, Jack Dohany has done wonders for 

CRIPT as a word processor, and itis now hard to compare it to the onginal. Lany Crawford, as 
well as a few others have done the same for TASWORD 2 for the Oliger and Larken. See his address 
elsewhere in this issue to contacthim. Do please pay attention to the fact that neither one of these 
programs is in the public domain. To get an upgrade from either person should ouly be done b 
those who legally own the programs. Atleast buys used copy of MSCRIPT or TASWORD. Bye 


2 


REPORT ON THE DAYTON COMPUTERFEST 


BY FRANK W. DAVIS 


The last weekend of August found Carol and | on our way to the Dayton, Ohio 
Computerfest for 3 days of visiting, selling and motel living. This was the third year that 
UPDATE Magazine has attended this show and the fifth year that | have personally 
attended. We found this year, as in all previous years, the show was different. The 
number of people attending each year is sky rocketing. The first year | recall any figures 
was for 12,000, then 15,000, then 27,500 and around 40,000 this year. The show is for 


3 


have to get out of that way of thinking and realize that a price should be fair, in order to 
keep programmers, hardware designers and dealers willing to put forth the effort for us 
that we need in order to expand and take advantage of future hardware and software 
developments. At the Computerfest, | saw this in relation to many computer systems 
other than our own. | saw IBM 286 computers systems with 20 or 40 meg harddrives, 
CGA monitors and 1-2 meg of RAM going (or attempting to go) for around $250, and 
Apple Ils for under $100. Both were having a hard time getting buyers. They were easily 
worth that much and more, and would still have sold for more by mail order or in a store. 
However, at the show people thought these were too high of a price. With this type of 
attitude, it will be hard to get folks to develop new items for these machines. If you have 
not already done so, check out my editorial for this issue, for more thoughts on this 
subject. 

: | find similar thoughts on occasion from some subscribers, such as one who wrote 
praising the content of UPDATE Magazine, yet telling me he thought it was priced too 
high. What he fails to realize, and may not even care about, is that magazines like 
COMPUTE, derive all of their income from ADVERTISING, not from the small rate they 
charge for a subscription. We do not have that many paid advertisers, and therefore we 
charge what it costs to produce the magazine and mail it to you. That is why we offer 
back issues at shows such as the Dayton Computerfest cheaper; we have no mailing 
costs at the show. | do welcome polite comments on this subject. Better yet get a friend 
a subscription to UPDATE as a gift this year (Christmas, birthday, maybe even as an 
extra anniversary present). That is the end of serious discussion, now back to coverage 
of the show. 

On Saturday night a goodly number of us gathered at Tim Swensons home for a 
cookout in his back yard. My thanks to Tim and his wife for their hospitality. It was a 
great time for eating and visiting. Who was there? | will try, but can not say for sure if | 
am leaving anyone out (if so then please forgive the oversight). Don Lambert from 
Indiana, as well as Carol and Frank Davis and Paul Homgren, also from Indiana; Bob 
Swoger from the Chicago area; John Impellizzeri and Don Walterman from Michigan; 
Jon Kaczor and Doug Gillespie and two others whose names have slipped my mind 
from the Cleveland area; David Lassov from Arizona; Neal Shultz and Bill Heberiein 
from Wisconsin; Harry Spencer from Alabama; Mel LaVerne and his son from 
Tennessee; and Keith Watson. | feel that | have forgotten a least two or three of those 
who attended, but did not mean to slight you, | have just never had a real good memory 
on names (ask my mother and she will tell you she remembers more of the people | 
went to high school with than | remember). The picnic was a delight and the food was 
plentiful. Everyone chipped in and brought stuff to serve, and no one that | knew of went 
away hungry. In previous years we had gone to a steak house near the motels to gather 
for Saturday evening, but being seated at 6 or 7 tables makes it harder to conduct 
conversations or move around as we did at the picnic. Gary Ganger also attended. 

If all goes well, we hope to be at the Dayton Computerfest again next year. Carol, 
Paul and | have always enjoyed getting out to these shows to meet our customers and 
readers. We are also users of Sinclair computers. We liked them so much we kind of 
refused to let them die in North and South America. We do appreciate your support. 
There is just one thing that may get in the way of our going to Dayton next year. At the 
end of the show many of the other dealers in the flea market area were telling us that 
next year DMA was considering putting the user groups and flea market out on the 
parking lot or in a tent. Should this happen, | will not bother to attend at all. The show 
can go in the direction that it gives too much to the professional booths such as IBM or 
Me oaen: and forgets its roots - as a show started for user groups and a great flea 
market. 

BY THE WAY, LAST ISSUE | ASKED YOU, THE READERS, IF ANY OF YOU 
WOULD BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING A SHOW LIKE IN NEWPORT. ANYONE??? 


4 


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QZX 


The Journal Covering Amateur Radio and Sinclair Computers 
ZX80, Micro-Ace, ZX81, T51000, 1500, and 2068, QL; 288 
Alex. F. Burr, K5XY, Publisher 
2025 O'Donnell Drive 
Las Cruces, NM 88001 
1993 July 7 

QZX is a monthly newsletter publishing articles of a technical nature of interest to Radio 
Amateurs and other technically oriented people from all over the United States and some 
overseas countries. The articles relate to any of the Sinclair computers. The US subscription 
rate is $15.00 per year. For a sample issue please send $1.00 (postpaid). 


2 
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5 


PNET... iat Heitten by: Mike Felerski 

i 1580 Gelhot Drive 

Fron i ae 
fe Fairfield, OH 

Bott le > AIRCOIDE 
H 45014-8309 

Cap i A EL 
Softuare | |IMUARCETIR (913) 829-7138 

} 
t 


($5.00 PPI 


Introduction 


This progran allows the user to create mai ling labels which contain the 

United States iostal Service’s Postnet® barcode below the address, 

Further pofergati non how the barcodes are decoded can be Feung n 
ssue 1. of the ing dare. World Gazette which is published in Update 
jagazine CP.Q. Bex 1 » Peru, IN 46970) 


Important Points 


The following are important points to Know about the PNET progran: 


1. The pragran nane is PNET.Ba and has a piece of machine code called 
COPSL.Cd which is_loaded and is used to Cony. onl 8 lines fron 
the screen _to_an Epson compatible CFX) printer through an flerco 
printer interface. Your own code can be loaded instead. 


2. Only _ZIP+4 Codes can be converted. No subsets or supersets of 
t Postnet can be converted Ci.e. S number Zip codes or carrier 


route codes, etc. 


3. Labels must be set to print on almost the very first_colunn of the 
printer since the entire width of a standard “x 3.5* label is 
used. The address res is 4 lines 8 characters with the Zipt4 
code taking vp the 5th line and the Postnet barcode the 6th and 
@th lines. The 8th line is used for the spacing between labels. 


4. The author of the PNET program assumes no responsibility for 
accuracy of the program or its output for any reason. 


5S. Now that the legal bits _are out of the way, enjoy the program and 
drop me a line if you like and/or use the program or have any 
useful suggestions --MJF 


Loading and Running PNET 


From _ the cassette yersion, LOAD "PNET" or LOAD “"’, When the progran 
hai loaded, the main Cand only)? screen will appear. rom here you can 
CE2dit the text, enter the €Zdip+4 code Pint the label, load a 
CPoont SO? lear the label, CSdayve or CLioad a label via diskette or 
cassette® or obtain a CDisk catalogue. 


Edit provides 4 line editing with Delete, Enter CNewline> and wrap- 
around cursor movenent. 


Zie+4 allows numeric entry only. Sorry no Canadian version as of yet? 
Print allows multiple labels to be printed as well as an escape option. 
Eont load works with standard Spectrun/TS2068 8x8 pixel fonts. 


The rest of the options are self explanatory. 


* PNET is provided with a Cassette version on one side of the tape and a 
Larken disk version Cthe author’s system) on the uther side. 


6 


"An Electronic Spreadsheet: Function And Application” 


-- An electronic spreadsheet is to 
the pencil, eraser, and slide rule 
what a jet plane is to the covered 
wagon. Cover the continentin a 
few hours (without error) not a few 
years with a lot of backtracking - - 


Paul Shelley 
SPREADSHEETS PART II 
Vol. 2:11 
“T.S. User Newsletter" 


PREFACE 


Some people may seem 
undismayed by the aforementioned 
statement, considering that they 
have prior knowledge of what is an 
“Electronic Spreadsheet Calculator" 
(ESC) and that they know how to 
use it. 


However, for the rest of the 
people who can't or don't yet 
appreciate the significant meaning 
conveyed by this colloquial 
expression, itis for them that this 
presentation is primarily intended. 


My purpose herein will be to 
demonstrate that for the 
Timex/Sinclair family of 
computers there are ESCs capable 
of doing the two main things that 
an ESC was developed to do: 1.) to 
handle "what-if" calculations 
electronically and 2.) to serve asa 


general framework with which to 
build "models" for the purpose of 
continually summarising, reporting, 
and analyzing, in matrix form, any 
financial, accounting, 
mathematical, engineering, and 
scientific manipulation of 

numerical data. And that the ESCs 
available for the T/S can be 
acquired for a fraction of the cost 
(and still carry as much "punch") as 
do the more sophisticated ESC 
versions for the higher priced 
computers. 


| will use an ESC that is for 
sale by my own company to 
illustrate the preceding facts to 
the experienced as well as the 
inexperienced user in the audience. 
Literature about this ESC is readily 
available. Though, it is hoped that 
the distribution of such literature 
will only be deemed academic in 
semblance compared to the 
illustration of this ESC as our main 
example throughout this 
presentation. 


PART | 


In our first step toward 
demystifying what is an ESC and 
what its applications are | would 
like to begin by showing you what 
my ESC looks like from the start 
(See Fig. 1) 


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es 
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af 
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e 8. 
. gureteras’ssesaa® 
mS OM et 


(fig. 1) 


As you can see it is basically a 
grid composed of columns (A-O) and 
rows (1-30); where each 
intersection (column/row) meets it 
is a place for holding some sort of 
data (e.g., a label, value, or 
formula) and these data 
compartments are referred to as 
“cells”. 


The concept of an ESC is fairly 
new. The first ESC was introduced 
in 1978 by a student at The Harvard 
Business School by the name of Dan 
Bricklin. Mr. Bricklin's idea was 
that a spreadsheet provided a 
“better way to perform endless 
recalculations of balance sheets, 
income statements, and forecasts 
required whenever a single 
assumption changed." Reportedly, 
he modeled his first microcomputer- 
based spreadsheet program to "an 
electronic black-board and 
electronic chalk." His original work 
had 5 columns and 20 rows. Later 
on Mr. Bricklin teamed up with 
Robert Frankston who enhanced 
this first ESC by increasing the 
number of cells and developed some 
“user-friendly” features and packed 


the results into a 20K program for 
the Apple microcomputer. To make 
along story short, this original 
invention was later named 
VISICALC and it is no secret that 
this software package went to 
become one of the most successful 
selling programs in the years prior 
to another popular integrated 
software tool called Lotus 1-2-3. 


My company's ESC for the T/S 
is called ZX-CALC (or T/S CALC 
2000 for the T/S 2068). It was 
primarily designed after the 
VISICALC program. Not exactly as 
VISICALC, but similar in function, 
it can handle just about any 
procedure than the higher priced 
version. 


My first task is to 
demonstrate how my program 
handles "what-if", contingency 
calculations like the higher priced 
ESCs do. Itis primarily with “what- 
if* calculations that a spreadsheet 
proves its most salient advantage 
and versatility versus the vertical- 
statically-fixed formatted 
programs which offer a limited 
method for storing, displaying and 
manipulating numerical data. Also 
ZX-CALC has the ability to use its 
resources for producing any number 
of various display "models" that the 
latter programs do not have. 


"What -if" calculations can be 
understood to occur in two set of 


circumstances. First a cell may 
contain data in the form ofa 
formula such as: A01+B01 assigned 
to C01. By this | mean that the cell 
C01 contains the formula A01+B01 
continually, until the formula is 
changed or deleted from the 
program and that when you use the 
automatic-calculate option of the 
ESC the result of said formula will 
always appear in cell C01 and that 
the result will only vary if the 

values in cells AO1 and B01 should 
happen to change. Second, the 
program may assign the formula 
A01+B01 to cell CO1, but do so by 
entering this formula in the form of 
an equation each time the final 
result has to appear. Thatis, in the 
first case the formula is calculated 
but itis also hidden and saved for 
later use by the program; whereas, 
in the second case no formula is 
hidden and saved by the program but 
itis allowed to be used and reused 
by manually entering it everytime 
the result is to appear in the 
designated cell (which in this case 
is cellCO1). What is important to 
note from either "what-if" method 

of calculation is that the final 

result of a calculation can be 
changed by simply recalculating the 
result-cell with the program as the 
data varies within the given 
formula. This ability to handle 
recalculations is what makes ESCs 
so unique in handling and displaying 
numerical data. Without this 
capacity to do recalculations there 


would be no other method than 
"backtracking" and using an eraser 
to change the intermediate and 
final results and later run through 
the entire calculation mode that 
was originally used to arrive again 
at the new intermediate and final 
total results of a given matrix of 
numbers. 


With respect to ZX-CALC it is 
the second set of conditions that 
apply regarding how "what-if" 
recalculations are done by it. That 
is, this program does not hide and 
save formulas in cells; it requires 
that an equation be entered 
manually each time you wish to 
recalculate the data in the ESC. 
There are six reasons why ZX-CALC 
has this mode of "what-if" 
recalculation. First, it has to do 
with speed. It approximately takes 
33 minutes to automatically 
recalculate the entire ESC. This is 
alright if there are numerous 
formulas scattered throughout the 
entire ESC, but in the case of just a 
few calculations it is preferable to 
use an equation that can generate 
actual results (e.g., sub-totals, 
totals, etc.,) within a matter of a 
few minutes instead of waiting a 
half-hour each time the ESC is 
recalculated. Second, there is 
usually (as in the case of another 
ESC known as VUCALC) a limit as to 
the number of formulas that can be 
included in an ESC. With ZX-CALC 
there are no limits to the number of 


formulas that may be entered into 
the spreadsheet, since an equation 
is used to reenter the formula into 
a given cell each time the 
spreadsheet is manually instead of 
automatically recalculated. Third, 
ZX-CALC is an applications program 
and how it is applied presents a 
more flexible and dynamic style 
than a program that requires that 
cell addresses be included within a 
given cell and hidden and saved 
within same for further 
recalculation. That is, you can use 
and enjoy using it more so than if 
the “shoe was on the other foot.” 
Fourth, though the program code to 
allow my ESC to operate in the 
first "what-if mode of hiding and 
saving formulae was written it was 
a matter of priority in calculation 
features included within the 
program that determined its fate 
primarily as a manually 


recalculatable ESC. For example, ZX- 


CALC includes a SUM function that 
allows one or more columns/rows 
to be added together to obtain 
subtotals, cumulative totals and 
final totals. Also my ESC includes 
a "replication" feature that allows 
cell data to be loaded or calculated 
according to one or more entire 
column/row, simultaneously, 
depending up to what cell address 
is “absolutely” or "relatively" 
specified in a given equation to 
copy agiven calculation or data. 
Both of these two features were 
esteemed to be more important to 


10 


calculation and recalculation 
procedures than including the first 
“what-if’ mode within the program. 
So the fact that ZX-CALC doesn't 
reference, hide and save formulae 
within a cell was a matter of trade- 
off between what comes first: 
versatility and speed versus simple 
“good looks." Fifth, there just 
wasn't enough room in RAM to add 
the first type of "what-if" mode 

into the program. Butin short it 
wasn't necessary and it would have 
created (as | have already proven) 
certain disadvantages if it had been 
included. Finally, even though you 
are required to recalculate 
manually the spreadsheet there are 
no serious defaults in doing so, 
since the program is the one still 
responsible for handling the actual 
operational and mechanical control 
of a given equation whenever you 
attempt to recalculate the data in 
the spreadsheet. Therefore, the 
computer (not you) is what 
determines the final outcome of 
calculations performed with my 
ESC on a manual basis. 


PART II 


In this section of the paper | 
would like to focus on the valuable 
aspect of an ESC as a "model" 
builder using worksheets and 
templates to define and create a 
wide variety of frameworks with 
which a user may rely on repeatedly 


to record and report data on more 
than one occasion in the same 
identical manner. 


To help us understand exactly 
what a "model" is | have chosen a 
particular accounting model 
package (sold by my own company) 
that makes use of the entire ESC ZX- 
CALC. The model is actually a 
supplementary application of ZX- 
CALC that serves to construct a 
financial picture of a relatively 
small enterprise (such as a sole 
proprietorship) for the purpose of 
analyzing or forecasting its 
financial performance. The name of 
this accounting model is called 
R.F.R.G. -- which stands for Ready 
Financial Report Generator. 


This model allows the 
generation of 10 different financial- 
status reports about a company's 
past business history on a 6-12 
month basis. 


What the content of this text 
is concerned with is a layman's 
explanation of what the 
terminology of the model means and 
what the model does. This will 
ease the process of summarizing 
and recording the essential 
numerical values next to each 
subcategory of each of the ten 
categories comprising this 
accounting model package. In turn, 
you can use the program to perform 
your calculations in order to fillin 


i 


the necessary blanks. 

After the model has been 
entered into RAM then you fill in 
the appropriate blanks next to each 
template (i.e., Set!, Page-1). Each 
subsequent worksheet is Page-2 of 
the current Set with the next 
worksheet being Page-1 of the next 
higher-numbered Set then Page-2 
of this Set..., and soon. 


Within worksheets 1, 2, 3, and 
4 we have the total picture that 
would generate a complete "cash 
flow" statement. This statement 
essentially reports the amount of 
money available, invested, how it 
was invested, and how much of it is 
left either in your pockets or left 
in a bank account. In worksheet 1 
we have 2 subcategories under cash 
flow, which are "cash" and "cash 
receipts." Cash is the actual 
amount of capital you initially 
decided to invest in your business. 
Interest is the revenue earned on 
cash invested in some kind of 
demand deposit: checking, savings, 
and certificate-of-deposit 
accounts. "Cash Beginning" is the 
sum of both cash and interest. That 
is, itis the money used to runa 
company's total operations. Cash 
receipts are monies loaned, owed to 
and paid into a company by 
creditors, clients, or stockholders 
of the company, respectively. Cash 
receipts are monies that when they 
are available to and are used by the 
company they normally are applied 


toward some purchase or 
amortization of some debt that the 
company incurred due to its regular 
operations. In worksheet 2 we list 
the "operating expenses" ofa 
company. Here we list the overall 
administrative and selling 
expenditures of a company, 
including the interest service 
charge a company must pay if it 
borrowed money at a specified rate 
of interest. (Remember, during the 
preparation of your financial 
reports you must set a definite, 
limited period of time during which 
these figures are compiled and 
recorded, therein). In worksheet 3 
you report the depreciation of all 
fixed assets preferably using the 
straight-line method. With this 
method take the cost of a given 
product-good, subtract its residual 
value (e.g., about 35% of original 
cost) and devide by the number of 
life-years you believe the given 
product will last. In worksheet 4 
you report total capital 
appropriations in order to obtain 
the sum of a company's financial 
burden. You then subtract cash- 
beginning from total disbursements 
to obtain "cash ending," which is 


the money a company has on hand, 


usually in the bank or are funds 
that it must borrow to meet 
current expenses. 


In worksheet 5 we have two 
reports. One is an "income 
statement". This report lists total 


12 


sales and cost-of-goods-sold and 
subtracts them both to obtain gross 
profit and then subtracts gross 
profit from operating expenses to 
obtain total net income fora 
specified period of time. Nextis 
the most essential report of them 
all which is a "balance statement” 
that reports a company's total 
assets compared to its total 
liabilities and stockholder's equity. 
By following each individual sub- 
category listed therein and 

referring to each preceding 
worksheet you will be able to 
record the proper figures needed to 
obtain a balance of assets-to- 
liabilities/equity. Worksheet 6 is 
simply the continuation and final 
segment of the "balance statement" 
report. 


Worksheet 7 is a display of 
various important financial ratios 
that serve as a quick guide to 
making current decisions and 
investment forecasts about a 
company's operations. In case you 
are unfamiliar with some of the 
terms used in this worksheet this 
is what they mean: (a full 
explanation of all labels used 
within the accounting model are in 
an Appendix enclosed with the 
package), Crt Rto, = current ratio; 
itis obtained by dividing current 
assets/current liabilities, Quk Rto. 
= quick ratio; itis obtained by 
dividing current equity/current 
liabilities. However, both ratios 


must be stated in relation to the 
number 1 (i.e. if current assets are 
$90,000.00 and current liabilities 
are $35,000.00 then the current 


ratio should be displayed as 2.57:1). 


Equity is defined to mean the total 
capital stock plus the retained 
earnings of a company within a 
specified period of time. 


Worksheet 8 displays a 
“capital statement" which is the 
total capital assets of a firm less 
any cash withdrawals that may 
occur within a specific time period 
during which the balance statement 
was prepared. 


Both worksheet 9 and 10 
comprise a “working capital 
statement". This report serves to 
demonstrate whether or not 
administrative expenses are 
covered by the monies obtained 
through the sole income earnings of 
the company without relying on its 
net equity. In this statement, 
though it does not appear therein 
you may also report (under “working 
capital provided") the monies 
obtained through the sale of a 
company's fixed assets as well as 
any deferred income tax taxes and 
withholdings of employee's salaries 
and wages and the sale of capital 
stock in the company. Since this 
accounting model is designed 
mainly for a sole proprietorship 
like my company is, | felt that it 
was not necessary to include these 


13 


subcategories within this final 
statement. If necessary, however, 
any user may expand worksheets 9 
and 10 to include these other 4 sub- 
categories if they indeed do apply. 


ALBEAT F. RODRIGUEZ 


PROPRIETOR 


1605 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. 
NO. 204 


MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139 (305) 831-8464 


QLiuacxer's Journal 


Supporting All QL Programmers 


Timothy C. Swenson, Editor 
5615 Botkins Rd. 
Huber Heights, OH 45424 
(513) 233-2178 


swensotc@p2.ams.wpatb.af mil 


Home ofthe 2 pound, 


fo Personal Assistant™ laptop 


Lee Hickenlooper 


Director 


The Personal Assistant™ 


TOLL FREE: 800 / 397-0855 
Voice: 801 / 575-8855 
1207 South State Street 


Fax: 801 / 364-6050 
Salt Lake City, Utah © 84111 


Spreadsheet Calculator 


T/S-CALC 2000™ 
2C-CALC™ 


An electronic spreadsheet calculator is the funda- 
mental basic tool for summarizing, reporting and ana: 
Iyzing in matrix form any excounting, mathematical or 
scientific manipulation of numbers. T/S and DWLalc 
operate in 32-64 RAM and afford a maximum of 3360. 
characters/spreadsheet. The entire matrix consists of 
1S columns (letters AO) and 30 rows (numbers 1-30) 
with 8 characters/cell. Unlike other popular ESCs, T/S 
and Zale use in calculations and within cells all 14 
math furxtions on the 26-81 /TS1000. tt offers a unique 
"SUM function that totals one or more rows/columas 
simultaneously. Parenthesis con be used within equa- 
tions, There is no fixed limit on how many equations may 
be entered. Formulas may be stored in all 490 cells of 
the spreadsheet The display offords 15 rows/columns. 
Loading of data into more than one cell can occur ocross/ 
down one or more row/column simultaneously. With 
vertical windowing you can arrange a set of columns in 
‘any order, or practice using fixed-variable-alignment 
display formats. The menu offers 6 options: enter/erase, 
move, calculate, print, save ond clear the spreadsheet 
€nter/erase allows the entering, deletion or data align- 
ment within @ cell through the use of a mobile cursor 
With the move option you may move around the entire 
spreadsheet to access any row, column or cell. The cal- 
culate option allows you to enter lobels, values or 
formulas into a cell or write and enter equations that will 
‘act upon the data already within the spreadsheet. You 
can also enter bar graphs into a cell in this option. 
Absolute/relative replication, down/across a column/ 
row, is also allowed by this option. Also this option al- 
lows the automatic calculation of the entire spread- 
sheet with one single command, Print allows you to 
output to either the Z/TS printer the entire spread 
sheet by column-sets and row-pages through use of 
the COPY command. The entire spreadsheet may be 
saved on cassette tape or you may clear all data from it 
or erase the program from RAM entirely. The most sali- 
ent advantage provided by an ESC over specifically ver- 
tical applications software is that on ESC provides o 
reusobie framework with which you can compose any 
specific financial model rather than just be limited to 
only one statically fixed format for storing, displaying 
‘and manipulating numerical data 


$19.95 


Lee 4/85 


sige 
ie 


Dear User: 


| have spent a great deal of time in 
researching, developing, testing and en- 
hancing what can be referred to as high 
quality business software. 


A few minutes of your time spent in 
reading the text of each subsequent 
product will demonstrate to you the 
unique features that each of my programs 
contains. 


When you finish reading you will realize 
that for their price my programs are a 
real bargain and a basic investment for 
your computing needs. 


IF you belong to a User Group be sure 
to show my flyer to other members so 
that they may take advantage of this 
special offer. 


Orders will be shipped the same day 
that they are received at my office and 
payment should only be by cheds or money 
order in my name or my company’s name. 


SHIPPING & HANDLING INCLUDED IN PRICE 


SOFTWARE® 


Presents: 


POWERFUL AND INEXPENSIVE 
BUSINESS SOFTWARE 
FOR “TIMOCSINCLAIR™ 

COMPUTERS 


ALBERT F. RODRIGUEZ 


PROPRIETOR 


Cycle Accounting 


T/S-2X Financial Report Generator™ 


in addition to its regular features, T/S and ZX-Caic 
can be bought as an accounting-mode! program. This 
means that the program can be purchased with built-in 
templates that will allow a relatively small business 
(Le., 0 sole proprietorship that rents rather than owns 
land/premises/offices, etc.), to prepare the ten most 
fundamental financial reports needed to analyze/plan 
@ financial picture of a company from the vantage point 
of cash-flow, income, a balance statement, ratio-analysis 
‘and working capital. You can use the program to do the 
necessary calculations and enter the right cmounts 
in the cells provided to the right of the listed labels 
There are basically 10 categories. Each category 
includes their respective individual sub-categories that 
define any numerical value within each category. for 
those owners of T/S or Cale who have the program 
but not the accounting package and now wish to do 
SO, 0 printout version is for sale. You will then have 
to manually enter the templates and afterwards be 
sure to save this template version on cassette tape 
for later use. 


A.F.R. SOFTWARES 
1605 Pennsylvania Ave., # 204 
Miami Beach, FL 33139 


(305) 531-6464 


FLORIDIANS ADD SALES TAX 
DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME 


$29.95 On Cassette 
$13.00 For Printout 


While there are a few “Data Base” 
software for the 2068 such as PROFILE, I 
opted to roll my own simple program. This 
program can be used for any record keeping 
or filing such as video cassette library, 
telephone directory, floppies, © CDs, 
addresses, membership list etc. As written, 
the program will keep 1000 records 32 
characters each with 3K of memory left over. 


The Menu Selections:- 
@ start a NEW records file. 
© Add or UPDATE a record. 


C3 LIST the records to the screen starting 
anywhere in the file. 

© FIND a record or title by ENTERing 
the first 3 characters or digits. (It is fast!) 

© SEARCH (wild-card) by ENTERing let- 
ter(s), number(s), or a combination thereof, 
especially if the spelling is unknown, the 
computer will find them in due time. Or to 
list records having something in common. 

© CORRECT. If a mistake is found while 
LiSTing the records, ENTER the record 
number, the record will be on the screen, 
reENTER it correctly. 

@ PRINT. Sclect what to be printed and 
the left margin, send it to large printer. Four 
_columns can be printed on the same page 
using condensed fonts to reduce paper 
shuffling. 

© sort the records alpha/numerically 
using SHELL SORT routine which is the 
fastest for this application, about 100 records 
per minute. 

© catalog disk. 


@ SAVE “program” LINE 10. Use 
GOTO G if you break; do not RUN except 
for the first time after typing the program. 


Aped Kahale 


5 DIM 0$( 1008, 32) 
18 CLS ¢ LET G=1@! LET H=100 
12 POKE 23658,8: POKE 23689,10: PAPER I: INK 9: BORDER 1: BEE 
P 83,40: BEEP 05,42: BEEP .83,45 
15 PRINT PAPER 5;*RcorDBase 
20 PRINT '"! - Start a NEW File" 
25 PRINT "*2 ~ ADD new record(s)* 
3@ PRINT '*3 - LIST records* 
35 PRINT '*4 - FIND a record* 
4@ PRINT **5 - SEARCH, Wild-Card * 
45 PRINT **6 - CORRECT an entery* 
5@ PRINT "*7 - LPRINT records list® 
55 PRINT '*8 - SORT records* 
68 PRINT **9 - CATalog disk*’TAB 193 INVERSE 1;"FREE MEMORY® 
65 PRINT "® ~ SAVE to disk";TAB 243 INVERSE SGN PI; FREE 
78 PAUSE NOT PI 
198 LET L$=INKEYS 
118 JF L$="1" THEN 60 SUB VAL *200" 


by Abed Kahale 1992" 


Use (GOTO G) after BREAK 


128 IF NEXT J 

138 IF GO SUB VAL *66" 
140 IF 60 SUB VAL *708" 
150 IF G0 SUB VAL "988" 
160 IF G0 SUB VAL "3000" 
178 IF @@ SUB VAL 4000" 
175 IF Ls G0 SUB VAL "8202" 


180 IF L$="9" THEN CLS : RANDOMIZE USR Hi CAT "",! PAUSE @ 
190 IF L$=*Q" THEN GO) SUB VAL "9000" 

195 © 106 

230 FOR J=1 10 1088 

248 (LS = PRINT ’*ENTER "*Z** TO TERMINATE ENTERIES* 

758 PRINT AT VAL "18", VAL "10"3"ITEM NUMBER *3 FLASH 130 

268 INPUT ‘Title, Cassette# & Counter read-ing?"’’ LINE C$ 
265 IF LEN C$)32 THEN BEEP .5)483 PRINT INVERSE SGN PI;" Ove 
r 32 Characters - ReENTER *: PAUSE NOT PI: 60 TO VAL "240° 
270 IF C$="Z" THEN G0 T0G 

328 PRINT "*CS 

TRO PRINT ’’"If Correct"; INVERSE SGN PT;* ENTER"; INVERSE NOT 
PI;" If Not, ENTER any letter" 

44@ INPUT 76 

350 IF 2$<>"* THEN GO TO VAL "249" 

368 LET 08(J)=C$ 

380 NEXT J: RETURN 

638 CLS = INPUT “START WITH # °3Q 

G48 FOR M=Q 10 J 

658 PRINT PAPER PI3M; PAPER SGN PI30$(M): NEXT M 

655 PRINT "TAB VAL "28"; INVERSE 1)" NO MO *: PAUSE NOT PI? R 
ETURN 

728 CLS : INPUT "Title? (First 3 Letters)*'’ LINE NS 

722 PRINT "LOOKING FOR>>-> "3NS 

738 FOR M=1 TO J 


16 


748 BEEP 085,33: IF O$(M)( TO 3)=NS( TO 3) THEN G0 T0 778 
730 NEXT M 

To@ PRINT "TAB VAL ‘28°; INVERSE SGN PIj" NO MO "s PAUSE NOT PI: RETURN 
778 PRINT INVERSE 13M} INVERSE 8503(M) 

775 & 10 758 

78Q PAUSE NOT PI: RETURN 

898 REM --—==(WILD CARD SEARCH)==---~ 

902 CLS : INPUT “ENTER any character(s)!*’’ LINE X$ 

9@5 PRINT "SEARCHING FORD=-> "3X$ 

918 PRINT : POKE 23692,255 

915 FOR N=1 TO J 

720 FOR K=1 TO S3-LEN X$ 

938 IF O$(NyK TO KHLEN X$-1)=%$ THEN 60 TO 960 

935 NEXT Kt NEXT N 

94@ PRINT "TAB 28; INVERSE SGN PIj* NO MO": BEEP .5,40: PAUSE NOT PI! RETURN 
968 BEEP .@3,48: PRINT 0S(N) 

965 & 10 935 

978 RETURN 

1008 REM DELETES SPACES AFTER SORTING 

1828 FOR N=1 TO Jé LET O$(N)=0$(N+1) 

1825 BEEP .825,48: NEXT Ni GO TO 6 

aed CLS : INPUT "ENTER Record # to be corrected"’’N 

3Q10 PRINT INVERSE SGN PI30$(N) 

‘3038 INPUT “ENTER the correction'’’A$: IF A$="* THEN RETURN 
O40 LET O$(N)=AS! RETURN 

4000 CLS : RANDOMIZE USR H OPEN #3, "LP* 

410 RANDOMIZE USR H? POKE 16892,8: RANDOMIZE USR H: POKE 16898, 132: REM 132 columns 
4Q15 INPUT “Left Margin?'’’R 

4038 RANDOMIZE USR Hi POKE 16894,R: LPRINT : REM MARGIN 

4035 OUT 127,27! OUT 127,28: REM Condensed style/font 

4048 INPUT “Start printing with #*°°Y’"End printing with #°°°7 
4245 FOR N=¥ TO Zt LPRINT O$(N)? NEXT N 

450 RANDOMIZE USR H? CLOSE #3: RETURN 


8888 CLS + REM -—--===( SHELL SORT )===—---- 

80@5 PRINT AT VAL *18°,VAL "12*;"STANDBY*3AT VAL "13", VAL "18"; FLASH SGN PI3* SORTING * 
9012 LET S=1 

8820 LET S=S#2 


8830 IF S<=J THEN 60 TO 8020 

8040 LET S=INT (8/2) 

8250 IF S=Q THEN BEEP 1,38: RETURN 
8868 FOR T=1 TO J-S 

8870 LET Y=T 

BO60 LET W=Y+S 

8Q9@ IF O$(Y)<=08(W) THEN GO TO 8158 
8102 LET 7$=08(¥) 

8112 LET 0$(¥)=06(W) 

8120 LET O$(W)=Z§ 

8130 LET Y=Y-S 

8140 IF ¥>@ THEN GO TO 8888 

8150 NEXT T 

8160 GO TO 8840 

9822 RANDOMIZE USR Hi SAVE "DBSMPL.BZ* LINE 18 
9012 RANDOMIZE USR H: LOAD "L.BI* 


17 


The Program (KEEPING RECORDS Cont.) 


E] Line 5 declares DIM(1000,32), 32K 
bytes, which can be any product not ex- 
ceeding the memory available such as 
DIM(200,64) or DIM(250,4,32) for 4 
lines address book. 


Ea) Lines 12 to 195 are for the Menu setup 
and Selection. A chirp sound is provided 
by line 12 and FREE memory is provided 
by line 65. 


kel Lines 230 to 380 are for ENTERing 

the records. Up to 32 characters long en- 
tries can be made in this case, but can be 
rewritten for other lengths. 


a Lines 630 to 655 list the records start- 
ing with the record number INPUTed to 
the end of the file. 


©) Lines 720 to 780 search for a match at 
the beginning of each record of the three 
characters INPUTed and lists them to the 
screen. 


Lines 890 to 970 search for a match in 
every record of the character(s) INPUTed 
and lists them to the screen. 


2000ecee, 


pacosne® 


B00 5 0c cao0e 


E_) Lines 1000 to 1025 delete any empty 
record cell that becomes record #1 after the 
SORT routine is completed. 


E2| Lines 3000 to 3040 prints to the screen 
the record to be corrected and provides 
INPUT for the correct record. 


El Lines 4000 to 4050 are for printing to a 


large printer using the LarKen disk inter- 
face to set the margin and 132 columns, 
also sets a Tandy DMP105 printer to print 
in condensed font. For a 2040 printer 
DELETE 4000,4035. Change line 4050 to 
4050 RETURN. 


1 Lines 8000 to 8160 sort routine by the 
first character of every record in this or- 
der:- Blanks/spaces, Numbers then Al- 
phabets. When the sort is completed all 
blank records will be at the beginning of 
the list. To remove the blank records, use 
GO TO 1000. 


El For other than LarKen users, lines 180, 
4000-4050, 9000, and 9010 will have to 
be rewritten accordingly. 


SS 


18 


2068 DISPLAY BILOCK—MOVES 
Bob Hartung, 2416 No. County Line Rd E., Huntertown, IN 46748 ‘ 


In the 280 microprocessor used in the 
2068 is a command called LDIR that may be 
used to quickly move defined blocks of data 
from one RAM location to another. The rou- 
tine listed below moves all or portions of 
the screen display (DFILE1) to RAM address 
30000 from which it may then be moved back 
to the display file. 


Because of the manner in which pixels 
and attributes are addressed in DFILE1, the 
simplest way to define a block to be moved 
is either the whole DFILE1 file, or the 
top, middle, or bottom third of the file. A 
pixel-by-pixel or line-by-line block-move 
requires much more complex definitions 


Some uses for this technique might be to 
insert text or graphics into a menu or to 
do animated displays. While the number of 
such displays stored in RAM is limited, 
many more may be saved to disk. This is a 
revision of an original article I wrote for 
the May-June 1985 SyncWare News. 


BLOCK-MOVE LISTING 


1 CLEAR 29999 

1@ PRINT "“® - Load SCRN displa 
y file"’"i - Full-screen store"’ 
"2 — Top screen store"’"3 - Midd 
le screen store"’"4 ~ Bottom scr 
een store" 

2@ PAUSE @: LET k#=INKEYS: IF 
THEN GO TO 2 

3@ IF k$="@8" THEN CLS : LOAD / 
"SCRN"CODE +: PRINT #@;"Any key t 
o continue": PAUSE @: RUN 

40 IF k$="1" THEN LET STP=1638 
4: LET ING=INT (STP/2546): LET NO 
B=6192: LET INB=INT (NOB/254): G 
0 TO 8a 

S@ IF k#="2" THEN LET STP=1638 
4: LET INS=INT (STP/256): LET NO 
B=2048: LET INB=INT (NOB/254): G 
Oo TO 8@ 

60 IF k$="3" THEN LET STP=1638 
4+2048: LET INS=INT (STP/256): L 
ET NOB=2048: LET INB=INT (NOB/25 
6): GO TO 8a 

7@ IF k$="4" THEN LET STP=1638 
444096: LET INS=INT (STP/256): L 
ET NOB=2096: LET INB=INT (NOB/25 
6) 

82 CLS : REM Create screen-filt 


9@ FOR n=1 TO 7@4: PRINT Mss 
NEXT n 

1@@ FOR n=2 TO 21: PRINT AT n,Q 
sn: NEXT n 

112 REM Defines selected |ines/ 
cols and copies from DFILE1 to R 
AM 

12@ POKE 65356,1: REM LD BC,no. 
of bytes to move 

13@ POKE 65357 ,NOB-(256*INB): R 
EM n LSB 

14@ POKE 65358,INB: REM n MSB 
15@ POKE 65359,17: REM LD DE,de 
stination address 30000 

16@ POKE 65362,48: REM n LSB 
17@ POKE 65361,117: REM n MSB 
188 POKE 65362,33: REM LD HL,so 
urce address 

199 POKE 65363,STP-(256*INS): R 
EM n LSB 

2@@ POKE 65364,INS: REM n MSB 
210 POKE 65365,237: REM ED pref 


220 POKE 65366,176: REM LDIR b1 
ock-move 

230 POKE 65367,2@1: REM RETurn 
24@ RANDOMIZE USR 653546: REM Ca 
11 block-move routine 

25@ PRINT #@;AT 1,@3"Any key to 
continue": PAUSE @ 

26% REM Moves RAM data to DFILE 
1 

27@ CLS 

280 POKE 65357 ,NOB-(INB*256): R 
EM LSB no. bytes 

290 POKE 65358,INB: REM MSB no. 
bytes 

302 POKE 65360 ,STP-(256*INS): R 
EM LSB dest 

318 POKE 65361,INS: REM MSB des 
t 

32@ POKE 65363,48: REM LSB sour 
ce in RAM (30000) 

33@ POKE 65364,117: REM MSB sou 
rce in RAM (3008aa) 

342 RANDOMIZE USR 65356 

352 PRINT #@;"Key 5 to save or 
m for menu" 

362 PAUSE @: IF INKEY$="5" THEN 
PRINT #@;AT @,2,,,,: GO TO 9998 
37@ RUN 
9997 SAVE /"SCRNmove" LINE 1: ST 
oP 
9998 SAVE /"SCRN"CODE STP ,NOB 
9999 RUN 


RMG 


ENTERPRISES 


Supports 
Sinclair / Timex 
Users! 


Send legal 3.4.3.E. with request for price 
sheet. Specify model interest. Send $4 for 
GIANT GIFT catalog. (includes ALL price 
lists? Phone or FAX for information on 


| 
| 


Mail to: 
14784 South Quail Grove Circle 
Oregon City, OR 97045 
$04/655-7484 * FAX 503/655-4116 


prices and availability. | 


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PRO/PILE - ON THE QL 


by Kenton Garrett 


Database Pro/File does not need any introduction to the Sinclair 
enthusiasts here in the USA. It was the most popular program of 
our Timex/Sinclair 1000 (ZX-81) and T/S 2068 (Spectrum) computer 
youth. ‘ 


Unfortunately Pro/File was never converted to QL use; but it has 
been Upgraded, Renamed And Rewritten In MSDos & Atari. 


PC-FINDEX 5.0 is the latest upgrade Dos version; and yes, thanks 
to the Gold Card & PC Conqueror - It Does Effectively Emulate On 
The QL! Best of all Findex is still the same Average User Data- 
base Concept that was the hallmark of Pro/File's success. 


Findex is unique in that it is completely unfettered - no fields 
sub-fields or restrictive pre-design requirements; and yet it is 
a powerful program, designed to permit the inexperienced user to 
easily and effectively create any type of database desired. 


When using Conqueror with DRDOS it is necessary to add, "Command 
Com", to Findex. Easiest way, is to add the "/S" Switch to your 
normal Format Command - when Formating a blank disk, to make the 
back up (working) copy of Findex. The "/S8" Switch instructs the 
QL to Automatically Add “Command Com" during the formating proc- 
ess. (Reference Pages 240-244 DRDOS 6.0 User Guide) 


Eg: With ED Drives And A 3 1/2" Double Sided/Double Density Disk 
The Format Command Would Be Format B:/F:720/S. The Step By Step 
Procedure Is: 

1. Load PC-Conqueror From Drive "A". 

2. Load Your DRDOS Operating System Disk From Drive "A" 

3. Leave The DRDOS Disk In Drive "A" And Put An Unformatted Disk 


In Drive "B." Type Your Normal "B" Drive Format Command WITH 
ADDITION OF THE "/S" SWITCH. 


If interested - Tom Woods, author of FINDEX, advises to contact: 


The E. Arthur Brown Company Phone (Area 612) 762-8847 
3470 Pawnee Drive Fax # (Area 612) 763-4310 
Alexandria, Minnesota 56308 Cost: $49.95 + $3.95 Shipping 
USA Visa & Master Card Accepted 


Shipping Cost For Overseas Orders May Be Slightly Higher. 


25 


RMG UPDATE NEWS FOR JULY 1993 


VOLUME S NUMBER 7 


We would like to hear from you! If you have something that you 
think we or our readers would be interested in hearing about, 
please call or write! We will pass it on! 


** ANG NEWS * 


Well, we are finally moved and are starting to get settled into 
our new location. We are frantically trying to locate ail of our 
inventory items, take a count and start filling orders as soon as 
we can. Some of you should see your orders arriving very soon if 
they have not already done so. Those who have not heard from RMG 
regarding a letter, request or order that you mailed after the 
first of April, please do not dispair, we will get to it soon! 


Some of you may have noticed by now, this little newsletter is now 
going to be carried as a regular feature in THE PLOTTER to replace 
the long-running BITS & BYTES column that I have been writing for 
many years. It makes more sense, as I was writing this news page 
and then virtually retyping it into the BITS & BYTES format 
anyway. Let us know what you think. We are not after free 
advertising, but we can use the exposure. 


Did you get last month's maiiing? If not, or, if you are new to 
RMG UPDATE NEWS, please make sure that you have the following new 
addresses in your records: 


RNG ENTERPRISES 
14784 SOUTH QUAIL GROVE CIRCLE 
OREGON CITY, OR 97845 TELEPHONE HOURS: SAM-OPM PT TUE-SAT 


CCATS 
14784 SOUTH QUAIL GROVE CIRCLE 
OREGON CITY, OR 97645 
*#% BEST OF THE PLOTTER NEWS *** 


We are still working! It is a stow process and we only have a very 
few people working on the project and these only for a couple of 
hours per month. Almost all of the section pages are compjeted and 
we are looking forward to getting into the assembly process soon. 
At that point, we will be getting close to finishing and we 
certainly hope that this happens before year's end! 


KEEP WATCHIN’ FOR MORE NEWS! oa cowen, owner, RNG Enterprises 


14784 South Quail Grove Circle, Oregon City, OR 97645 
583/655-7484 8AM-6PM PT * FAX: 503/655-4116 24 HRS 


CABLE COLUMN 
By Bill Cable 


ARCHIVE SERIES 
PART 14 : ENTERING PROCEDURES USING THE 
ARCHIVE PROGRAM EDITOR - THIRD GROUP 


We are starting to build a large program now. This time | 
am introducing several new procedures to our basic user 
interface procedures now saved as group2_prg. We will 
call this new set which includes all of our group2 plus the 
new procedures - group3. | am not being specific about 
what kind of program we are ultimately making because | 
haven't made up my mind yet. The procedures we are 
adding this time are still of a general nature and will be 
useful in many situations. Feel free to contact me if you 
have a request for a particular kind of ARCHIVE program 
to be developed in this column. 


PREPARATION 

Start ARCHIVE in your customary way so you see the 
ARCHIVE command prompt (>). You will load the group of 
procedures entered last time and saved in a file called 
“group2". Then we wilt start the editor and begin entering 
the first new procedure called “close_all". You will 
continue entering the rest of the procedures plus 2 testing 
procedures called “test2" and “test3" to illustrate how the 
new procedures can be used 


\f you make a mistake while entering the listing below the 
editor may not accept the line and you will have to spot 
the mistake and correct it (like unmatched quotes). Also 
the indention’s should match the listing if there are no 
mistakes. Type in as much as you wish at one time and 
exit the editor and save the file with the name group3 and 
save a second copy somewhere else. Remember to load 
group3 when you are ready to continue your work. Test2 
illustrates the directory related procedures and test3 
illustrates the field_display procedure used with the 
by_arrow procedure entered last time. This allows us to 
access a particular field of a database using the arrow 
keys or the first letter of the field name. Most likely you will 
have mistakes to find (debug). The basic steps are 


load ‘fgroup2"<ENTER> 
edit<ENTER> 

<F3-n New procedure 
close_allsENTER> New procedure name 
{enter line of close_all listed below} 


Load previous work {}=device 
Start editor 


<ESC> Exit adding new procedure 
<F3>n New procedure 
acopy,i$ j§<ENTER> New procedure name- 
{enter line of dcopy listed below} 

. and soon 
<ESC> <ESC> Exit adding and editor 
save ‘fgroup3 <ENTER> Save work {=device 
test2<ENTER> Try test2 procedure (play) 
test3<ENTER> Try test3 procedure (play) 


LISTING OF NEW PROCEDURES TO MAKE GROUP3 


Proc close_all 
while 1: close : endall 
endproc 
proc dcopy:i$,j$ 
msg;23, "copying "+i$+" to "+j$: backup i$ as j$ 
endproc 
proc device: 
print at i,0;"For “+i$; tab 80; at i+1,1;rv$; 


print" Use: Fip1_ Fip2_ Ram1t_ Ram2_ Mdv1_ Mdv2_ Other eXit ";rv$;tab 80; 


by_arrow;i+1,1,8,8,8,"FFRRMMOX", 
else: 


else : if ans 
endif : endif : endif : endif : endif: endif : endif 
endproc 
Proc directory 


device;22,"Directory": if ans$=""" return : endif. let d$=ans$ 
while 1: dir d$: print at 23, 1;1v$;" Directory of *,d$; 
print tab 22;": Copy deLete 
by_arrow;23, 1,25,4.12,"CLDX",4: if ans=0 or ans=: 


if ans=1: let ans$="filp1_" 
let ans$="flp2_": else : if ans=3: let ans$="ram1_" 
2_": else : if ans=5: let ans$="mdv1_" 


1 :inpy;i+t," Name the device": else : let ans$="" 


Directory eXit “irv$; tab 79; 
2 return 


else : if ans=1: print at 23,1;rv$; tab 79; at 23, 1;" Copy ".d$; 
input f$;: print rv$;:device;22,"device to copy "td$+f$+" to" 


liny;22: if ans$<>"": let eS=ans$ 


print at 23, 1:rv$; tab 79; at 23, 1;" Copy ":d$;f$;" to “;e$;: input g$;: print rvS; 


if gS="": let gS=1$: print rv$;g$;rv$;: endif 


25 


error dcopy;d$+f$,e$+g$ 
if errnum()=21:yorn;23,e$+g$+" already exists. Overwrite" 
if ans$="y":dkill;e$+g$: error dcopy;d$+f$,e$+g$: endif : endif 
if errnum(): acky;23,"Copy failed. Err No = “+str(errnum(),2,0): endif: endif : let ans=0 
else : if an print at 23, 1;rv$; tab 79; at 23,1;"Delete : ";d$; 
input h: rint rv$;: if h$<>"*: error dkill;d$+h$: endif : let ans=0 
else : if ans=3:directory: return: endif : endif : endif : endif : endwhile 
endproc 
proc dkill:i$ 
msg;23,"deleting “+i$: kill i$ 
endproc 
Proc erry;I,m$ 
acky;I,"Error “+str(errnum(),2,0)+" while “+m$ 
endproc 
proc field_display;!$,sI,ni,sc,nc,bw,fw 
let n=0: let al=sl: let ac=sc: let cc=1: while n<numfld() 
let i$=fieldn(n,I$): if len(i$)>fw-2: let i$=i$(4 to fw-2): endif 
if len(i$)=1: let i$=upper(i$): else : let i$=upper(i$(1))+lower(i$(2 to len(i$))): endif 
print at al,ac; let n=n+1: let cc=cc+1 
if cc>nc: let ac=sc: let al=al+1: let cc=1: else : let ac=ac+bw: endif: endwhile 
endproc 
proc looky;d$,I$ 
msg;23,"look access of “+d$: look d$ logical I$:liny;23 
endproc 
proc setup 
rem sets needed initial values ** must be run first ** 
let rv$=chr(26): let hp=3: let hi=1: let sp=5: let si=1: let cs$=chr(27)+"B" 
let ke=1: let ke$=" KEY+ENTER “* 
endproc 
proc test2 
mode 0:setup:directory: mode 1 
endproc 
proc test3 
mode 0:setup: error close_all 
fet hd$="TEST TO DISPLAY FIELDS OF ANY ARCHIVE DATABASE":heady;hd$ 
device;4,"Device location of source database. exit to stop" 
if ans$="": mode 1: stop : endif : let sd$=ans$: dir sd$ 
inpy;23," File name of source database (with extension)": let sn$=ans$ 
error looky;sd$+sn$,"s": if errnum():erry;23,"accessing “tsd$tsn$: test3: return : endif 
msg;23,"checking fields": let =0: let a$="": while I<numfld() 
let i$=fieldn(|): let a$=a$+upper(i$(1)): let I=1+14: endwhile 
cls : print tab 30;"PICKING FIELDS of ";sd$+sn$: print rv$;cs$: let n=numfid() 
let i=20: if n<41: let j=2: let k=40: else : if n<61: let j 
let k=20: else : if n<101: let 
else : if n<121: let j=6: let k=13: else : if n<141: let j=7: 
else :acky;23,"Too many fields to display":test: stop 
endif : endif : endif : endif : endif : endif 
field_display;"s", j,k,k: print rv$; 
jet ans=1: while 1: print at 22,1; tab 22;"Move arrow to desired field"; tab 79; 
print at 23,1; tad 20;"<ENTER? to select or 0 to exit"; tab 79; 
by_arrow: .k,a$,ans: if ans=0: mode 1: stop : endif 
if ans<=numfid():liny;22:acky;23,"You chose field "+fieldn(ans-1): endif: endwhile 
endproc 


The procedure “setup” already existed so you need to you may come across. Next time | will have more 
alter it to match the new listing. To use “test3" you need a__ procedures. Feel free to contact me if you have problems. 
database to inspect. There is a small "bug" in by_arrow Until then, Happy Archiving! 


26 


QL CORNER 


This summer I spent much of my time learning to use the many new 
features of XCHANGE and XCHANGE Quill. Some of us had expected an 
XCHANGE manual to surface somewhere so that we could use XCHANGE more 


efficiently. This never happened. 


I decided to look closely at the five HELP files (those ending with 
an _hob extension) and decided to re-format them, select those files 
pertaining to the new commands and printing them out- After working 
with XCHANGE for several weeks, I added some text to the file I-call 
XCHNOTES. XCHNOTES_doc file is approximately seven (7) pages long and 


will do for now as a user’s manual. 


XCHANGE Quill, Archive, Easel and Abacus are updated versions and 
seem to operate faster than the latest versions of the same named 
files. When in XCHANGE itself, multi-tasking with additional software 
isn’t a problem. I now use XCHANGE instead of Taskmaster and 
multi-task The Editor S. E. without any problem. 


facility in XCHANGE Quill will allow the use of a 
from either Archive or Quill. So those of you 
out there who do not use Archive will find a _ simple _doc file 
adequate for use as a database. Incidentally, using this mail merge 
is a lot easier than using a mail merge from a separate Mail Merge 


program. 


The mail merge 
Name and Address file 


I. can supply any reader of LIST with a copy of XCHNOTES_doc or 
XCHNOTES_txt and all five HELP files formatted as _txt and _doc files 
én disk provided you send me a formatted, 720K disk (either 5 1/4" or 
3.1/2") in a suitable envelope so that it can be used for return to 
you and return postage which is usually 75 cents in stamps. If you 
Need the XCHANGE program, send an additional formatted disk with 
enough return postage. I will send out the software the next day 
after receipt of your request. 

suffering from a QL overheating problem, I 
have on hand a small supply of the 2 Amp version of the 78C05 
voltage regulator. (Original version is 1 AMP). The European’s have 
used this fix for quite some time with good results. Here in the 
"States’ they were not available. If any one needs one, send me $3.00 


and I will send you one, post paid. 


If any QL user is still 


Digital Precision has sent me the latest version of The Editor S. E. 
to review for IQLR. I’ve been using The Editor since 1987 and 
upgraded to the Special Edition in 1968. This is the only ‘word 
processing’ software that I need. At times I prepare manuals ranging 
from 20 pages to approximately 200 pages for some friends in the 
airlie entertainment industry. All pages are printed out 

back-to-back. The Editor.SE handles this very well. Any control codes 
required (bold, double height-width, italics, letter quality, and’so 
on) I embed directly into the text while proof reading. This can be 
done quite easily since The Editor has a special character set which, 
when used for control coding, the printer understands and follows 
through by printing out these commands correctly. 


use The Editor SE, and don’t know whether you have 
the latest version or not (all SE versions are 2.05 regardless of the 
upgrade), look at the byte count for the XTRAS file. My original SE 
version of the XTRAS file indicates SK 598 bytes; the newest version 
indicates 7K 268 bytes. There really aren’t any new commands added, 
however many of the commands have been *tweeked’ or improved. The 
boot file now activates several Lightning files which are included on 


27 


Those of you who 


the disk, for faster operation of the software. Digital Precision 
will upgrade The Editor sé for you for a slight fee. 


Digital Precision has also upgraded PC CONQUEROR (pc emulator) to 
operate with more memory when using a Gold Card. This program is 
called PC Conqueror Gold Special Edition which allows the user with a 
Gold Card and ED disk drives (3.2 Meg) to get the most out of this PC 
emulator. I understand that this edition will also support hard 


drives. 


being developed recently operates with Tony 
Tebby’s Pointer Environment which is Mouse operated or with the QL 
cursor keys. If you are really interested in this type of software, 
search through the pages of IQLR, QL World, Updates or QUANTA. 


Most of the new software 


There is an awful lot of activity within the QL Software and 
hardware area, with many software libraries available consisting of 
public domain and shareware on disks. I have approximately 125, 720K 
disks full of interesting programs. Just check the ads in QL World 


for further information. 


QUANTA’s library has grown by ’leaps and bounds’ - I’ve lost track on 
just how many disks make up their library. I recently received four 


720K disks from Bob Dyl, the East Coast Quanta librarian. The 
programs on these disks were compressed - The programs on the four 
original disks are now housed on 15 disks. Decompressing the 


programs are very easy. as it is menu driven. 


If you don’t subscribe to IQLR, QL World, Updates or Quanta and are 
still active with your QL, you should ‘get the ball rolling’, select 
one or more of these publications and PLEASE, subscribe. 


International QL Report, 15 Kilburn Court, Newport, RI 02840, 
Telephone: 401-849-3805 EST 10:00 AM through 9:00 PM ~ $18.00 USA. 
Bob Dyl Publishes IQLR 6 times per year. 


UPDATE Magazine, P. 0. Box 1095, Peru, IN 46970, Tel:317-473-8031 

Between 5:00 PM through 9:30 PM Standard Time during the week and 
noon to 6:00 PM on weekends. $18.0@ US and and $22.00 outside US. 
Carol and Frank Davis publishes four times per year ~- supporting ALL 


Timex/Sinclair computers. 


QL World Magazine, Archwind, The Blue Barn, Tew Lane, Wootton, 
Woodstock, Oxon, OX7 1HA, UK. USA & Canada ‘49.90 - Europe *32.90, 
Credit Cards accepted! Publishes 12 times per year. 


QUANTA - a World-Wide-QL. User Group, Membership Secretary: Bill 
Newell, 213 Manor Road, Benfleet, Essex, S$S7 4JD UK Telephone: 0268 
754407. Publishes Quanta magazine 12 times per year and provides a 
vast software library which is free to all members. 


Please...’ byte the bullet’. Let the Magazine publishers know that 
all QL users in the US will support them so that they can continue to 
publish their periodicals. Without these publications, software and 
hardware manufacturers will stop producing their wares because they 
Will not be able to advertise their products - then it will be time 


to say, Good Bye, QL! 


See you next month....80b Gilder 


28 


QLUSTer 5.105 
by Al Feng 


QLUSTer has recently undergone a long awaited upgrade which had 
been partially delayed by a year of voluntary service (servitude?) 
on the Eastern Navajo Reservation. As the version number would 
suggest, QLUSTer has undergone a significant change, the most 
important of which is easy access to already "made" sub-DIRectories 
structures. 


QLUSTer requires that your QL have access to five SuperTOOLKIT2 
keywords: WCOPY, WDELete, SPooL, RENAME, WSTATus. 


Sub-DIRectories [ ... -> J 


Access to the sub-DIRectories is performed by simply pressing the 
appropriate key designate as you might for an individual file. 
QLUSTer will determine that it is NOT a file, and go about the task 
of retrieving and displaying the sub-DIRectory. 


The sub-DIRectory will be "in play" even if you change the device 
to a floppy which does not have a sub-DIRectory structure. The net 
result may be an empty page if no files exist with the appropriate 
DIRectory prefix. 


Return to the main DIRectory via a SELECT_DEVICE option (press ‘0’ 
to access). 


If the disk you are using has sub-DIRectories, but your QL does not 
have not have a sub-DIRectory structure [i.e., " ->"], then QLUSTer 
will (at last attempt) simply access the first file in that 
sub-DIRectory. The subsequent files will not be accessible other 
than via WCOPY or WDELete. F 


Greater "crash" protection 


Time away from Qomputing has helped me resolve the problem of my 
version of TURBO (2.00) implementing file type recognition. It is 
believed that the only reason QLUSTer will hang-up/crash now is if 
the EXECutable file is corrupt and does not load properly. 


QLUSTer will also "ask" whether or not your printer is READY before 
it will attempt to send a file down the line. 


Send comments/questions/queries to: Al Feng 
914 Rio Vista Circle 


Albuquerque, NM 87105 
U.S.A. 


HAPPY TRAILS, AND COMPUTING, TO YOU ... 


29 


QLuMsi DOS v4.20 
by Al Feng 


QLuMSi DOS (QL.using.M'cr~S”ft.interface Disk Operating Simulation) 
has, as the version number might suggest, recently undergone a long 
awaited upgrade which had been partially delayed by my year of 
voluntary service (servitude?) on the Eastern Navajo Reservation. 


Version 4 of the QLuMSi program has added the following commands: 


cD \ 

cD \{sub-DIRectory_prefix] 
MD \{sub-DIRectory_ prefix] 
RD \{sub-DiIRectory_ prefix) 


Most people with a QXL, GOLD CARD and FLP/RAM chip should welcome 
the ability to access sub-DIRectories. 


The 'MD \' command (with a "“sub-DIRectory_name") will initiate the 
MAKE_DIR commmand and MAKE a sub-DIRectory on the medium. For 


example (you may want to try this on a dupe of your master disk), 
at the prompt, input the following: 


MD \FAST 


When you input 'DIR' (presuming you have appropriate TK2_code) you 
should see: 


FAST -> 
in place of FAST_Disk and FAST_doc. 
The ‘CD \' command with a sub-DIRectory_prefix will access: 


a) the sub-DiIRectory on the medium; or, 
b) any other valid prefix. 


Thus, if you were now to input "CD \FAST" (after performing the 
above example), you would see: 


A:\FAST\> 


Now, inputting "DIR" will show you the two files along with a 
data-file, e.g.: 


FAST_Disk 
2758 1993 Sep 19 17:00:00 


FAST_doc 
4096 1993 Sep 19 17:00:00 


PAST_ 
64 1993 Sep 19 17:00:00 


The 'CD \' command (without a sub-DIRectory prefix) is used to 
return to the main DIRectory. 


30 


The 'RD \' command (with a "“sub-DIRectory_name") is used to REMOVE 
a sub-DiRectory from a mediun. 


NOTE: If you have several sub-DIRectories with similar "names" 
then you may be asked whether or not you wish to REMOVE 
them also, e.g-: 


RD \LETTER 


will prompt you if you wish to REMOVE the sub-DIRectory 
name LETTER as well as LETTERS (for example). 


NOTE: If there are files in the sub-DIRectory, the sub-DIRectory 
will not be REMOVEd. 


As before, those more familiar with the standard DOS commands may 
opt to utilize the smaller COMMAND_COM version of the program. 


Both the "full" version of the QLuMSi program as well as version 4 
of the COMMAND _COM program require that your QL has the MAKE_DIR 
command available to it in addition to the traditional TK2_EXT 
code. 


To accomodate those who either do not have a QXL, GOLD CARD, or 
FLP/RAM chip, a version of the new QLuMSi program has been included 
which does NOT require MAKE_DIR (hence, will not allow you to "MAKE 
(a sub-)DIRectory" on a medium. This is the QLuMSi_COMn program 
you will find on your master disk (use BOOT_ALT). 


QLuMSi printing 


In the current version, indicating the device as either COM or LPT 
still presumes SER. This may-or-may-not be an inconvenience for 
QXL users as my understanding is that some of the i/o drivers have 
not been written yet. 


I will make necessary changes in the future as information becomes 
available.to me. 


Send comments/questions/queries to: Al Feng 
914 Rio Vista Circle SW 
Albuquerque, NM 87105 
U.S.A. 


HAPPY TRAILS, AND COMPUTING, TO YOU ... 


31 


MECHANICAL 
AFFINITY 


513 EAST MAIN ST. OR 5231 WILTON WOOD CT 


PERU IN 46970 INDIANAPOLIS IN 46254 
317 475 80351 317 291 6002 
FRANK DAVIS PAUL HOLMGREN 


Bringing the very best to you in SINCLAIR software and, 
hardware from around the world. We want to provide 
service to you the customer. Need something, give us a 
call. Make all checks or money orders out to either "Frank 
Davis’ or "Paul Holmgren’. Thanks! 


SPECIALS GOOD THRU DECEMBER, 1993 


GOLD CARDS for the QL - This add-on card for the QL 
computer gives you 1920K of memory, Tool Kit 2, battery 
backed clock, 16 MHz of speed, with 16 bit RAM and allows you 
to use upto 3 disk drives with your QL. The drives may be either 
double, quad, high or ED drives of 3 1/2 or 5 1/4. We also 
include the program "Slowgold" for no extra charge, and a 2 year 
warranty. Thru Christmas only $350. 


Falkenberg HARD DRIVE INTERFACE for the QL - this kit 
includes the QL hard drive board, two slot adaptor for the Gold 
Card (adaptor for 5 slots available for the non-Gold $20 extra), an 
MFM or RLL hard drive controller, cable and documentation. 
This system will work with any RLL or MFM hard drive from 20 
to 416 meg of storage space. All of this and postage included for 
only $315. We have some 40 meg MFM drives for only $100. 


5 1/4 double sided double density disks -- 100 w/sleeves for $18. 
32 


QXL CARD for the IBM - This card has a 32 bit 68EC040 processor running 
at 20 MHz and we are offering them in 2 meg, 5 meg and 8 meg RAM sizes. 
The processor has access to its own RAM so performance is virtually 
independent of the host PC (so it could be an 8088 or 486, etc). Under the 
QXL your PC becomes purely an I/O system giving QL programs access to the 
PCs floppy disk, hard disk, keyboard, display, serial and parallel ports. The 
QXL has 2 QL style network ports to allow connection to a QL network. We 
offer these cards with a two year warranty, and will automatically send you 
free of charge software upgrades for the system. The operation is easy; install 
the card, insert the disk, and type "QXL" and your PC will appear to be a 
QL...a real upgrade. The price for the 2 meg is now $460; the 5 meg is $540; 
the 8 meg is $650. The lower meg ones can be easily upgraded by changing 
memory chips. 


TEXT87PLUS4 Version 4 - This is the very latest version of this popular word 
processor for the QL. It now checks to see if you want to use the standard 
dictionary or add your own word list; the initial menu now includes the ability 
to IMPORT as an option; now before a file is saved all residues of aborted 
Typefaces are removed; dimensions and co-ordinates are now rounded off in 
Layouts (rounding off also takes place when you change the length unit; and 
now when you zap a document the text sections are retained, together with the 
rulers and layouts, thus giving you a complete skeleton document for adding 
text. These are only some of the enhancements in this new version. We are 
offering all of this for only $119. We also have 2488, the printer driver for 24 
pin printers and bubblejets for only $29; the Typeset90 - deskjet driver for HP 
deskjet printers for $29; and Typeset90 - Epson Laser drivers for $59. 


LINEDESIGN from PROGS - this is a vector drawing program which uses 
outline fonts and clipart , and allows you to move or resize text or art without 
losing any print quality. It comes on a ten disk set of the main program, plus 
many fonts and clipart. It can be mouse controlled and gets even better the 
more memory you have. The price is $149. 


PROGRAM TAPE SPECIAL FOR THE TS2068 AND TS1000 - 4 program 
tapes, our choice and all different, for $3 and this includes postage. Get 6 tapes 
for only $4. These are all commercial programs and only 300 available. 


128K RAM CARTRIDGE FOR THE Z88 for only $40. 


353 


QL TIDBITS AND TIPS SINCE 
THE LAST ISSUE by 2. ». 


WANN UA 


There comes a time when enough people (aot jut my 
counseling clients) bave asked enough questions about OLs 
and related items that I feel | need to share what J have 
found out with the rect of you. I have not been able te get 
good answers to all of the questions asked, but 1 will relay 
those [can answer or get answers from Frank or Paul on. 1 
should at this point mention to all of cur readers, that I 
will offer belp when and where J cen, if it does not take 2 
large amount of time. I know that the best place to get 
answers is cften the dealers, but always remember this one 
point: IS IT FAIR TO ASE A DEALER YOU HAVE NOT 
DONE BUSINESS WITH T0 ANSWER QUESTIONS 
ABOUT HOW TO SET UP OR USE THE SOFTWARE 
THAT YOU PURCHASED ELSEWHERE? YOU ARE 
ASEING THIS DEALER 10 SPEND HIS TIME TO 
ANSWER QUESTIONS FOR SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT 
EVEN BOTHER TO BUY FROM HIM. | have talked to 
three dealers recently who have reported this as 2 growing 
problem, being inundated by people who have purchased 
products from outside of North America, and then expect the 
North American dealer to take bis time to show them how to 
get it to work, Most reason that it is cheaper to call or 
write bere than overseas, 

Tat ove time did most of my purchases from overseas, 
and sent repairs to be done over there, The service was 
gond, but I decided that this sort of thing would kill off the 
few dealers and repair facilities we bad bere, s0 I changed 
my ways. In North America we have A.F.R, Software still 
here; RMG Enterprises, Dan Elliott's excellent repair 
facility, Mechanical Affinity, Wood and Wind Computing to 
name the ones that first come to mind. Give them the 
business if you want support from them, and they will all 
try to do right by you. It might even belp the balance of 
trade for us by keeping the mailing costs and small bit of 
profit here in oar hemisphere, rather than elsewhere, As 
many of you bave realized by now, Canada and the USA 
have definite ideas about how to play fair in business, but 


pome countries seem to scoff at such old fashioned ideas axa 
level playing field, This has hurt the economy of North 
America, 1 do my bit by buying here when! can, and 
avoiding those who are the worst offenders, such as Korea, 
Japan, China, and France, Most of what we get for our Qs 
and 2865 has to come from England, Belgium, Denmark and 
Germany, who are fortunately playing 2 bit more fair than 
the other mentioned countries, 

Ido not believe I have made such a strong 
sconomical-political statement since my days ax a college 
itudent, I will only say it this one time, End of subject, 

Now for the technical end of things, Frank got a 
letter from a wer recently ned know about using the 
serial printer with the Miracle QZL card. You need to use 
COMS 1 to be able to use the serial printer on mine. This 
may uready have been updated and made easier by the time 
you read this, as Miracle bas been working very hard to 
finish all the drivers, etc, for the MEL card, 

Another GZL question that bar come up is how to 
change the 2 meg version of the card to a Smeg or @ meg 
version, It can be easily done by those with some electronic 
hobby experience, or lacking that take the purchased chips 
and card to your nearest electronics repair shop, along with 
this article, To go from 2 meg to S meg: Swap 6 of the 
DRAMS, by swapping every other one with the new ones 
starting with the one nearest the bracket, To go from 2 meg 
to 8 meg you need to replace all of the chips. They are 
CIPPS and should be 60 nanoseconds or better, 1 replaced 
the ones in mine with ones that were 60 nanoseconds and it 
works pat Some software has already been updated to 
take advantage of this large amount of RAM, and the 
facilities for QL users who want to put these cards on an 
IBM compatible, and 1 am looking forward to more such 
improvements, 

Al Feng wrote to Frank that the Keyboard 90 
Interface he got from Mechanical Affinity to use with a 
ZEOS RS keyboard and bis QL, bad some keys net properly 
working, He had lost some functions, such as the back-slash 
and the vertical line and finding the tilde and the pound 
sterling sign being the resulting output, The answer should 
be the following: 2) sbiff vectical ling apaals back-slash b) 


34 


above TAB, next to the 1 key is where you should find the 
back-slash key, This does not seem to be ROM dependent, 
just the wiring setup for the Eeyboard 90 Interface, It is a 
ice setup once you get used to 2 few small quirks like this. 

Anyone out there who has tried or wanted to get the 
new program LINEDESIGN, but were pat off because you 
were using ¢ Canon Bul OF and thought it would not work 
with that, let either PROGS or MECHANICAL AFFINITY 
koow and they will get you a driver that will work with it. 
This is a program that appears to have great potential, and 
expect to see some newer versions come out over the next 
year or 60, to which the upgrades will probably be free or 
lowcost (this may aot be the case in a major upgrade 
version, it may cost a small amount at least), As the 
program is right now it is the best in its category. Some of 
the fonts on 2 9 pin printer are not quite as good as some in 
TextB7Plasd, but with a Bubblejet or Deskjet or even a 
Laser printer they are magnificent. The way PROGS has 
dove upgrades in the past it would be best to get one of the 
versions, and upgrade later, When a major change comes 
ont, it may cost more than the combined original program 
and upgrade cost. The fact that you can import Adobe 
Illustrator files to the program is quite a plus, Some folks 
have already bad remarkable success adding new fonts to 
the program, What else can you say abont a QL program 
that comes with manual and {0 disks, 

To answer my own question an issue or two ago about 
wing my Canon BUI OE with Tert87Plus4, the new version 
with Software 87's new program Publishers Pack comes 
with two new extra items. One is an upgrade oa 
TertB7Plaed (the program only costs $59 and is worth 
it)which contains many new eabancements to the program, 
The otber new item is Fountext93, a new high resolution 
upgrade to Fountert8@ which prints at 180 X 180 dots per 
inch on 24-pin and bubblejet printers. It also comes with 
ready-made-page-layout objects such as shadowed 
bores that you can start preparing professional looking 
publications, Publishers Pack combined with LINEDESIGN 
combines the text editing and printing capabilities of 
Text? with the graphics and foot handling ability and 
power of Linedesign, The North American distributer for 
there is Mechanical Affinity. This can all be purchased 
together as Plusd Publisher, and comprises the Plasd 


wordprocessor, LINEDESIGN, and Publishers Pack for the 
price of 199 ponds sterling or $295 US$. 

By the way | got Software 87's program 2488 to 
work for me and my bubblejet, it war a simple matter of 
having the correct setting on the little pins inside the 
printer, Experiment around with them and you will learn a 
bit about what pin settings on a printer can do, Make sure 
you write down what your original settings were so that you 
can reset it if needed. [use my bubblejet a lot when 
traveling, but at home and office I use my HP Deskjet Plus. 

A tip for thore using inkjet type printers that will 
improve your printouts, or originals used for photocopying, 
You will do best with inkjet paper. It is a special clay 
coated paper and helps keep the ink from smudging and 
appearing fuzzy. With this special paper you will get 
sharper printouts, /This also applies to the older Olivetti 
inkjet printers and color inkjets. If it is not available in 
your office supply store, ask them to order it for you. It 
costs more, but it is worth it for printing those things that 
you care about the appearance of, 

Those of you whe purchased a copy of SER Mouse 
over 6 months ago, if you have not got it up and ronnigg, 
should check with Jochen Mertz or Mechanical Affinity and 
get the Latest version, with new manual. It is best to send 2 
few dollars or german marks to cover the cost along with 
proof of purchase, The newer version seems much improved. 
Tam still hearing from people who think it should work 
with non-pointer environment programs....not with out some 
reworking of those programs, If a program does aot support 
a mouse or pointer envirenment, do not expect the mouse to 
do all you think a mouse should do, Programs are becoming 
more and more pointer environment friendly, but not all are 
there yet. Some of them may never be changed to that. 

T have heard that Parker Lewis has found the same 
bag (or at least nuisance in Text7 [ have found. When 
used with a nine pin printer, my old Seikosba, it will not 
fre me any foats that are simply double height, I would 
ike to be able to use such when I use my older printer to do 
labels with 

Does anyone ont there know how to do business cards 
with the Deskjet or Bubblejet? I can get sheets of blank 
single sheet business cards, but am not sure of how to either 
format, of program to use, EPY 


jo 


SUPERBASIC 
DATA TYPES 


Whenever we use variables ina 
SuperBasic program, we tell 
the SuperBasic interpreter what 
type of data it may hold in each 
variable. We don't necessarily 
do this deliberately as the 
system ‘defaults’ toa particular 
type But whatis a type and 
how do we take advantage of 
them? 

It's all to do with data 
tepresentation, if we're dealing 
with numbers in an accounting 
program, we're likely to want to 
use fairly large numbers which 
may optionally include a 
decimal point If we were 
writing a program to look after 
the stock levels in our factory, 
we'd probably want to use 
whole numbers, and if we're 
writing an address book 
program, we want to deal with 
strings of characters. These are 
the three fundamental data 
types accepted and used by 
the SuperBasic interpreter 

The first type, numbers which 
may inciude decimal points 
and can take on extremely 
large values, is known as 
floating point. On the QL, 
floating point numbers have a 
range of in the region 10 to the 
power of + 615. 

‘The second data type, that 
comprising whole numbers, is 
known as the integer data type. 
On the QL, integers can be any 
whole number between 
32768 and —32767 

The last type, comprising of 
strings of characters, is known 
as the string data type, and 
strings can be from zero 
characters long (known as the 
null stringie, *") up as far as 
32766 (NOT 32767!) 
characters long 

The reason for the existence 
of the three types is that 
different applications demand 
different kinds of data, and 
having to hold all data as‘one 
particular type would be very 
inefficient. QL SuperBasic 
variables are specified in terms 
of type by following the name of 
the variable with a special 
symbol If there is no symbol, 
asin 

variable 
then the data type is floating 


point. As itis implied rather 
than specified, this is the type 
adopted by default 

Integer variables are 
introduced by following the 
name with a percent sign, as 
in 

variable% 
and string variables are 
created by terminating the 
name in a dollar sign. 
varlable$ 

The SuperBasic interpreter 
exercises something known as 
type coercion, which means 
converting data fromone type 
into another. For example, we 
may have a variable, v, which 
holds the number 23. As vhas 
no special symbol at the end, it 
is a floating point variable This 
means that its value, 23, is heid 
as a floating point number 
inside the QL. Nevertheless, we 
can put the value into an 
integer variable 

xh=V 
because the value of v(23) also 
happens to be a valid vatue for 
an integer The SuperBasic 
interpreter coerces the floating 
point representation of 23 into 
its integer representation 
before the value is placed into 
x%. This coercion is often very 
useful, as we don't need to 
check for operations such as 
the assignment above, and old 
BASIC functions such as STR: 
and VAL are done away with. 
To see whether a coercion 
could be successful, we need 
only to consider the generality 
of each type. Asa string 
variable can hold an arbitrary 
string of characters, and as all 
numbers may be written down 
as characters (and therefore 
stored as characters), it follows 
that a string variabie can 
always be assigned a numeric 
value. The statement 
v$= 1234.56 

will put the seven characters 
4 “3”, 4", "", 5" and “6” 
into the string variable v$. The 
value of 1234.56 (ie, the 
number 1234 56) will not be 
stored, simply its string 
representation. The string data 
type is therefore more general 
than numeric types such as 
floating point and integers. 

Floating point is more 
general than integer, because 
every integer may also be 


represented as a floating point 
number This makes the integer 
data type the least general and 
string type the most general 
There is a further data type 
accepted by the SuperBasic 
interpreter, calied the name 
data type. This is used for 
procedure, variable and 
function names, and for file and 
device names Itis comprised 
ofa string of characters, just 
like the string data type, but is 
slightly iess general than string 
as not ail strings are valid 
names Itis used whenever you 
specify a filename, asin 
OPEN#3,mdv1_myfile 
As you can see, the only 
difference between it and a 
normal string is that it is not 
surrounded in quote marks. Itis 
perfectly permissable to add 
the quote marks, and thus turn 
it into a string, but itis generally 
less convenient to do so. The 
name data type is a sub-branch 
orleaf of the string data type 


UN-TYPED DATA 


Occasionally you will come 
across instances of data which 
don't seem to have a type 
specified at all. Although you 
may think that this makes it , 
default to the floating point 
type, this isn't quite true 
Let's take a typical defined 
function: 

1000 DEFine FuNction 
MYFUNC%(a,b) 

1010 LOCalc,d$ 


‘0 

1040 RETurn LEN(dS) > 
1050 ENDDEFine 
if we make alist of all the 
identifiers (names) in this 
function, we see MYFUNC%, a. 
b,c, dS. The function itself, 
MYFUNC4%, is terminated ina 
% sign, which indicates that the 
function is typed. it returns an 
integer result. Likewise, the two 
local variables cand d$are 
typed; cis a floating point 
variable and dBis a string 
variable. What about the two 
formal parameters, a and &? No 
type is specified for them, yet 
they are used as string 
variables within the function. 

This is another rule of the 
language followed by the 
SuperBasic interpreter: formal 


parameters to functions and 
procedures are un-typed, and 
the actual type is derived from 
the usage of the variables 
within the procedure or 
function. As we're using them 
as strings here, it doesn't 
matter what type the actual 
parameters are as string is the 
most general type. if we had 
used them as integers in the 
function, we'd get an ‘Error in 
expression’ error (or possibly 
‘Overflow’ if the actual values 
of ‘a’ and ‘b’ could not be 
coerced into integers. 

There is nothing to stop us 
specifying the types of the 
formal parameters within the 
function, as in 

1000 DEFine FuNction 
MYFUNC%(aS,b$) 
but as the interpreter still 
follows its own rules, the type 
we specify will be over-ridden 
by the type dictated by the 
usage 

The reason for having un- 
typed formal parameters is a 
littie obscure, but as it makes 
little difference to the way we 
write programs it doesn't really 
matter Some of SuperBasic's 
tules for typing DO affect us, 
though, and if we don’t know 
about them itis very easy to get 
confused. The main point to 
watch is the ‘flow of control’ 
statements 

SELect 
REPeat 
FOR 

Each of these has a ‘contro} 
variable’ (or, more accurately, a 
control identifier) which is 
‘specified in the construct: 

‘SELect ON var 

REPeat loop_1 

FOR x=0T0 10 
The important thing about these 
control variables is thatin all 
three cases they MUST be 
floating point variables. We 
cannot have 

SELect on var% 

or 
REPeat loop$ 

The annoying thing is that if we 
enter such an erroneous line 
into a program, the SuperBasic 
interpreter won't compiain. 
Things will go wrong as soon as 
we run it, though, and the 
particular error generated may 
be extremely obscure So 
watch out! 


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QL CORNER 


Great news for QL Users! Psion, UK has declared XCHANGE, a suite of 
four bundled programs, (Quill, Archive, Abacus and £Fasel) as public 
domain software. All QL and QDOS users can freely distribute copies 
among their groups for personal use. The version of XCHANGE being 
distributed is 3.99 which was rewritten and produced by Dansoft for 
the Thor computer (a QL in a PC case). 


My understanding is that each of the five programs (Xchange, Quill, 
Archive, Abacus and Easel) have the latest upgrade which include 
additional commands. 


The Xchange file is approximately 183K, which will only operate with 
disk systems as the file is too long to be placed on a microdrive 
cartridge. 


Thanks to LIST member, Joe LaPunzina for providing me with a copy of 
Xchange. 


The diskette has many files on it, which includes a disk editor, a 
file editor, a screen dump utility with many different printer 
drivers and _doc files. 


Xchange provides a multitasking environment, has commands of its own; 
Set which allows the default data drive and Help file drive to be 
changed; Output which controls printing a document as a background 
task while you continue working on either of the four programs. TSL 
is another command which stands for Task Sequencing Language. Seeing 
this in action will astound you! There are a series of TSL files on 
the disk. 


My advice is to load Xchange. When the Xchange screen appears, press 
CTRL/C, then F3, T. A prompt will appear on the command line; enter 
TUTOR and then press enter. A menu will appear at the top of the 
screen offering a tutorial for each of the Tasks (Quill, Archive, 
Abacus and Easel). Press the appropriate letter for the task and 
Xchange will load and run the tutorial file of your choice 


Quill has several new commands: Glossary which allows the user to 
designate a character to be used as a 'Macro'. Export, which will 
output the current file in memory to be printed to a file in ASCII, 
without any control characters attached (except carriage return). In 
other versions you could do the same thing when printing to a file 
instead of printing to a printer. However, when you choose this 
option the user had to remove the disk with the printer driver on it 
so as not to have any printer control characters embedded within the 
file. 


There is a Mail Merge facility included within Quill and another 
command called Extract, which operates much like the copy command but 
will allow you to save blocks of text to a disk so that they may be 
merged into other documents. 


If I have interested you in the Xchange suite, you can send mea 
formatted 726K disk (either 5 1/4" or 3 1/2" diskettte), with return 
postage (normally 75 cents for one disk) and encolsed in a decent 
envelope which can be used for the return mail, I will copy the 
entire disk for you and mail it back to you. I have a disk with the 
Xchange HELP files formatted into _doc files which makes life a lot 
easier when printed out on paper instead of reading the Help files on 
a screen. If you want these files include an additional formatted 
720K disk - the postage for both disks usually runs at 96 cents. 
See you next month....Bob Gilder 


56 


T/SNUG Information 


ZXir QLive Alive! 


is the newsletter of T/SNUG, | the 
Timex/Sinclair NorthAmerican User Groups, 
providing news and software support to the 
T/S community in at least four newsletters 
per year. 

It is our goal to build and maintain a 
Public Domain software library and develop 
a list of available software for all T/S com- 
puters showing the source. 


T/ SNUG wishes to have one 


chairman from cvery T/S user group who 
will take charge of sending us their group's 
newsletter contents and other correspondence 
for inclusion in the ZQA! Newsletter. 


We encourage your group to copy this 
newsletter and distribute it at regular meet- 
ings to all your members. If you cannot copy 
this newsletter, perhaps we can provide a disk 
with the articles on it. 


YOu can keep T/SNUG alive for an 
annual contribution of $10 made payable to 
Abed Kahale. Send check to:- 


ABED KAHALE (LarKen Library) 
335 W NEWPORT RD 

HOFFMAN ESTATES IL 60195-3106 
Phone:- 708 885-4337 

Back copies are available for 50¢ each postpaid 


ZXir QOLive Alive! 
Articles Contributions 


If. you like to contribute an article to 
the Newsletter, upload a file to our BBS, call 
it TSNUG.ART. If you have an AD for the 
Newsletter, UPLOAD a file call it 
TSNUG.ADS. If you have news to 


post about your group, UPLOAD a file call it 
TSNUG.NWS 

For help, contact the SYSOP by E-MAIL on 
the T/SNUG BBS, mail or phone:- 


BOB SWOGER 

613 PARKSIDE CIR 
STREAMWOOD IL 60107-1647 

Tt is preferred that you call:- 

H 708 837-7957 W 708 576-8068 


(CATUG/LarKen) 


To contribute a hardcopy, tape or 
disk send your inputs to:- 


DONALD LAMBERT 
ZxXir QLive ALive! Newsletter 
1301 KIBLINGER PL 
AUBURN IN 46706-3010 
Phone 219 925-1372 


For software libraries, write or call the 
following Vice-Chairmen. When writing 
please enclose a LSASE . 


DAVE BENNETT (Z88) 
329 WALTON ST REAR 
LEMOYNE PA 17045 


ROD GOWEN 
14784 QUAIL GROVE CIR 
OREGON CITY OR 97045 


(CCATS) 


ROD HUMPHREYS 
10984 COLLINS PL 
DELTA BC V4C 7E6 CANADA 


(VSUG/2068) 


DG SMITH (2068 TAPE Library & JLO) 
R415 STONE ST 
JOHNSTOWN PA 15906 


ED SNOW (ZX-81 TAPE & QL) 
2136 CHURCHILL DOWNS CIR 
ORLANDO FL 32825 


CAMBRIDGE 


North America 


First Time Procedure For Your Z88 


First Time Start Up: 


Follow these instructions only when the Z88 has been without any power 
and must be fully reset and initialized. You should never have to follow 
these instructions more than once-- the first time you put batteries in the 
Z88. Thereafter, the Z88 provides plenty of backup internal power to let 
you change batteries without resetting the computer. 


1, Install the batteries following the Battery Installation instructions 
below. 

2. With a paper clip or fingernail file, press the small grey button on the 
left side of the Z88. It is in a small square hole next to the round hole 
for the AC adapter plug. The screen on the Z88 will stop fluttering 
and sparkling once the button has been pressed. 

3. If the screen goes blank after pressing the button, turn the Z88 on by 
pressing both "SHIFT" keys at the same time. 

4. Press the "[]" key just to the left of the space bar, then press the "S" 
key. This brings up the CONTROL PANEL display. 

5. Use the various arrow keys to move the small blinking cursor (black 
box) around in the panel until it is sitting on the "E” in the word 
"European". Then press the "A" key followed by the "ENTER" key. 

6. Next, set the date and time by pressing the "[]" key followed by the 
"T" key. To set the date, press the "-»" key to move the cursor to the 
word "SET" and press the "ENTER" key. Type the date, but do not 
press the "ENTER" key when done. Instead, press the "}" key to move 
to the time. Type in the time and press the "ENTER" key. 

7, Press the "ENTER" key again to exit the Clock function. 


AC Adapter Use: 


Use a 6 volt adapter with a 300mA or 500mA current rating only. The 
polarity must be correct. The inside of the plug must be positive and the 
outside negative. Double check these three characteristics: voltage, 
current, and polarity, before connecting any AC Adapter to your Z88. 
This is especially true if you choose to use an adapter that lets you switch 
voltages or polarity. 


Battery Installation: 


Make sure you install all four AA batteries in the direction indicated. 
‘Insert one battery at each end of the tray. To insert the middle two, form 
them into a "V" shape with the legs in the tray and press down on the 
point of the "V" until the batteries seat themselves firmly. Always keep 
batteries in your Z88. This will protect your data even if you are using an 
AC adapter. 


Using the American Dollar: 


The spreadsheet application, PipeDream, assumes the British pound for 
currency. To change to the American dollar while in Pip¢Dream, press 
the following keys in order: "o" (above the left SHIFT key), "O" (oh), 
"ENTER" (press twelve times), "$", "-»", "DEL", "ESC". 


Using CompuServe, America’s Computer Utility: 


Make sure that you set the Z88 up with the correct protocol for the baud 
rate you will be using. To do so, press the "[]" key followed by the "S" 
key to get to the setup panel. In the right column are the communication 
parameters. Set the first two entries to the correct baud rate, set the third 
entry, Parity, to "S"pace and the last entry, Xon/Xoff, to "Y"es. 


To dial using the terminal application, type the four letters "ATDT" 
followed by the phone number and press "ENTER". (If calling from a 
rotary dial phone, the first four keys to press are “ATDP".) 


While communicating with Compuserve, there is a tendency for the 
information to scroll off the screen. To prevent this, once you are in the 
service, keep your left little finger resting on the "o" key. With the index 
finger of the left hand, press "S" to Stop the screen from scrolling, and 
press the "Q" key to resume scrolling. 


Until you are familiar with using the Z88 as a terminal, it is recom- 
mended that you always use the lowest baud rate your modem is capable 
of processing. 

Using other Communication Services: 
Most services are similar to Compuserve. Besides the above instructions, 
make sure you follow the procedures laid down by the particular provi- 
der you are communicating with. 


If the Screen is Hard to Read: 


On the left edge of your Z88 is a knob for brightening the screen and 
making the letters darker and more easy to see. Packaging the Z88 tends 
to rub the knob toward the lightest setting. To brighten the screen, adjust 
the knob until the letters can be read comfortably. The best setting is 
just before the entire screen darkens, This provides the best contrast. 


HELPWANTED/FOR SALE/ITEMS NEEDED 


This area of each iseueis reserved for any and all UPDATE subscribers who are either looking for help with 
a Sinclair related problem: have a Sinclair computer related item for sale, or computer peripheral: or are 
looking to purchase a computer item for their Sinclair. thas been fairly successtul. Those whohave 
entered ade before (and let me know the results) show that better than 50% of those who putin their FREE 
ad getwtiat they are looking for. S0...2end me your personal ade. You just might make some money or find 
theitem or help you want. This offer is open to active paid up subscribers toUPDATE only, as a free ad. 
‘You may do one for each issue. This is not meant to replace or beuved for commercial ads of a vendor. 


(1) FOR SALE: Olivetti Inkjet Cartridges for the PR2300. These are not easy to get. | have a few dozen 
altogether for sale, at $6.00 a box, or two for $11.00. Each box contains four inkjet cartridges. Theprice 
from Olivetti for these is $13.00 per box, 90 this is quite a savings. Also for sale, an AercoDisk Interface 
for the T62069, with 64K of extra RAM on it, with doce for only $85.00. AleoaTS1000in anice, full size 
keyboard case for $35. All of theseitems include postage. Make checks out to "UPDATE Magazine" If 
necessary call and talk to Frank Davis evenings to check on availability. Update Magazine, P.O. Box 1095, 
Peru, IN 46970. Phone no. 317-473-031. 


(2) For Sale: USED OL MICRODRIVE CARTRIDGES, some with and without tabs, mixed, nochoice. Four of 
these for $6.00, postage included within USA, othenwiseinclude one more dollar for extra postage. Onlya 
couple hundred of these available at this price. Paul Holmgren, 5231 Wilton Wood Court, Indianapolis, IN 

46254, or call 317-291-6002 in the evenings or weekends. Make checks out to Paul Holmgren. 


(3) Dr. (retired) D. H. Williamegon, of 968 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B9H 301 Canada, writes and 
says "I have just started tousemy 162069, but desperately need advice and heip to upgradeits capacity, 
and change from tape to disks and disks drives, increase memory. | am hopeful some good soul will putme 
on the right track, Frank." Howabout several of you readers out there contacting this reader and offering 
eome help? 


(4) [have a email requeet, for the last 10 years | have been trying to locate a copy of "The Complete 

2X81 Diseasembly by Dr. lan Logan” butwith no success. Perhaps one of the UPDATE subscribers has a 
copy they would bewilling tosell tome. Charles G. (Chuck) Bothner, 137 EastShore Ad., Denville, NU 
07834. This is for uve with my T81000 ae a hardwarecontroller, and [need to modify the operating 
system. (editors note: perhaps if it can not be found for sale, then someone could maybe even photocopy 
itorloan it to Charles tophotocopy in order tohelp this project along). 


(5) FOR ALE: one FLP/RAM level2 chip for the Trump Card for $32.00, and 612K miracle EXP ANDERAM 
tor $75.00, or both for $100.00. Al Feng, PLAT YPUS Software, 914 Rio Vista CirclaSW, Albuquerque, NAM 
87105. Phone no, §05-843-8414. 


(6) FOR ALE: one WAFADAIVE, needs to beused with Spectrum or Spectrum emulator and spectrum 
buse or twister board. Has two fast stringy floppy drives of approx. 128K each, word processor, extra 
memory wafers, parallel and seria! port with parallel cable. This ie a good system and a great way toadd a 
serial port to your T§2068 or Spectrum. All of this for only $60.00 pos tage paid in USA, $3.00 extra for other 
countries. Makecheck out toEliad Wannum or toUPDATE!, c/o UPDATE Magazine, P.O. Box 100%, Peru, 

IN 46070. Due to the fact that! am on theroad alot, check with Frank or Carol at UPDATE toveeif it is still 
available, or call them at the UPDATE phone of 317-473-8031. 


(7) HELP NEEDED: We need examples of good computer generated art, screen dumps, digitized, or 
screens converted from other non-Sinclair machines for use in futureissues of UPDATE. Send either on 
disk, or good hard copy. Letu knowif you need the original or disk returned. Send to Carol Davie -— 
Publisher, UPDATE Magazine, P.O. BOX 1096, Peru, IN 46970. Alsointerested in routines or programs to 


42 


convert graphics from non-Sinclair machines touseona QL, 298, or 82068, Wecould use theseherein 
our work with the magazine, and think that our readers would find these to be very useful 


(8) WANTED: Copy ofinetructions and software drivers for these (IBM) memory cards. 1) SixPakPlus by 
AST Research inc. 2) Quadboard by Quadram Cor. 3) Memo-2000xt by Ram Bank ROG. 4)Mem-122 by 
Addonicelnc. ContactD. G. Smith, R. 415 Stone St, Johns town, PA 15006. Ph. 914-.535-.6908 


INFORMATION WANTED: Also from D. G. Smith, “What can you tell me about puttinga standard AGB 
port inside the 2069? |! have a copy ofan articleby Tim Stoddard for doing this (from Time Designs, | 
think), but 3o0meone said they thought there was another, maybebetter, article or set of inatruc tions. If you 
could, just point mein the right direction. Oris Tim's method about the best? If 80, | will need the pin-outs 
for a standard AGB (CGA)connector. Tim used an 8 pin DIN connector.” 


(9) We received word too late that they arelooking to have a Sinclair Fest near Toronto, Ontarioin 
Canada They were requesting through their Club newsletter for people torespond and tell them if they 
would be willing to go. !t was toolate for ue toinclude this in this issue and meet the deadline they asked 
tohear from folke by. UPDATE Magazine and Mechanical Affinity will be going to this proposed show if 
they decide tohave it, (sometime in July 1994), and we would like for all of our readers who would be 
interested in attending such a show tow4ite or call up to Canada and show them some support. The 
Toronto area is a great place to both live and visit. | know because | used to live there before Carol and | 
were married (in factwe moved and lived there for awhile after we were firstmarried). Send yourreplies 
to: Hugh H. Howie, 586 Oneida Dr., Burlington, Ont. Canada L7T 3V¥3. Things he wanted toknow were 
a) would you like this tobea one or twoday event? b) what traders/gurus would you like to see/meet? 
GIVE THEGE FOLKS YOUR IDEAS AND SUPPORT. 


SPECIAL NOTE Of UPDATE ISSUE DISKS 


Someof theissue disks we have been offering havenot been updated in awhile, or ithas been 
awhile since we sold some of them. Starting with the nextissue of UPDATE (the January issue), those 
which we have nothad updated for some time, or had little or noresponse on selling will be dropped from 
our offerings. Some that appear headed in thatdirection are the ones by Bill Jones and Gill Pedersen, as 
they are not subject toupdates any longer. Up until that time they are offered at $5.00 off of the prices 
theyare listed for on theback pages This also applies to the Cable and Hartung diaks. Wewill also be 
dropping the Aerco disk offerings. | had eeveral of you ask me toinclude Aerco disks, ol did, butnoone 
ever ordered one. We will of course be replacing these with newdigks. For this short time take advantage 
of this price reduction and get some good North American generated Sinclair software. Perhaps we could 
sell some Aerco software hereif someone would submit it for us togiveita try. New stuff. 

This issuewe do have some tities that have been updated by Al Feng, and we have added another 
disk of good shareware and PD software for the QL to the QL Compendiom set. These prices remain the 
game If you have purchased the compendiom and want theextra disk, justletus know and include $3 to 
cover the disk, mailer and postagecoste. Also if you bought an earlier Al Feng program and want the 
updated version , send either the original disk and $2, or $3 and proof of purchase and we will send you 
the upgraded version. 

Justasmall reminder to those of you looking to have an isgue disk in your name, we need first a 
write up suitable for publication on the program, and if possible (depending on size usually) a printoutof 
the program ready to use in an issue or two. Itis best if the doce are short to alsohave these available to 
print. We take care of making doc copies for the buyers, postage, packaging material, diska and the 
advertising. We offer the disks ata fair price and give you half the fund ae a royalty, using our half to pay for 
the expenses. Write to the editor, Frank Davis if you areinteres ted in becoming part of this program. We 
have had some that did fairly well, and others thatdid nothing, but you never knowif you donot try! 


43 


24—PUN BOT WMAGE GRAPHICS 
POR 24—-PIN OR BUBBLE JET PRIUMIERS 10) EPSON SMUILATON 
Larry Crawford / 357 Reynolds Rd / London Ontario Canada N6K 2P8 
(519) 657-9119 PUBLIC DOMAIN 12 Oct 93 

If you went for a 24-pin or bubble jet printer and had 
thoughts of trying to print some graphics in the 24-pin bit 
image mode, you were probably somewhat taken aback by the 
apparent comlexity of it all, just as I was. 

This article should take some of the mystery out of the 
process. The demo program will give you the information needed 
to develop your own applications. 

BACKGROUND 
The 24 print head pins are arranged into three groups of eight. 
In effect, each group acts as a separate 8-pin head covering 1/3 
of a print line. Thus, with one pass it is possible to achieve 
the vertical definition of three 8-pin passes with only one 
pass. Furthermore, it is possible to achieve a density of 360 
dots per inch in Hex Density mode. 

These attributes make the printing very fast and should allow 
a CAD program to produce printed circuit board layouts with good 
solid lines without the need for multiple passes. Unfortunately, 
the existing CAD programs that I have seen are all based on 72 
dots per inch (dpi) horizontal density and 8/72" vertical line 
spacing. The 24-pin printer does not have the 72 dpi option 
Instead, it uses multiples of 60 dpi and 1/360" paper feed. This 
makes the size of the printed image larger than that produced by 
an 8-pin printer. 

Consequently, it cannot be used by software programs such as 
Pixel Print or CAD in their present form: a) two columns of 64 
characters will not fit side by side on a page and b) the socket 
hole spacing on a pcb layout would be too great. It should be 
possible to modify the calculations performed by a CAD program 
to get the scale of the final image correct. 

There are numerous other applications, of course, so feel free 
to make use of the information that follows. 

As a demonstration, we will print the first line of the screen 
in 24-pin double density bit image graphics. The data in the 
conversion chart that follows is essential to the process 


Type in the following program (without the parenthetic comments, 
of course): 
5 REM 24-pin bit-image demo 
10 CLS: PRINT "QWERTYULOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM1 23456" 
[this will put a single line on the screen to copy] 
20 IF IN 127<>236 THEN INPUT;: PRINT #0;"PUT PRINTER ON LINE": 
PAUSE 2: GO TO 20 
[An important reminder since the screen will go blank and 
nothing will happen if the printer is not ON. 
<INPUT;> is a simple way to clear out the bottom of the 
screen] 
30 RESTORE 30: GO SUB 500: DATA 27,65,8,999 [set Line Feed to 
8/60") 
40 LET y=175: RESTORE 40: GO SUB 500: FOR x=0 to 255: DATA 
27,42,33,0,2,999 [y points to top of screen; codes are sent 


44 


to set printer for 24-pin bit-image double density: it will 
expect 2x256 bytes of data: the x loop will point to all 256 
pixel columns across the screen] 

50 LET b1=224*POINT (x,y)+28*POINT (x,y-1)+3*POINT (x,y-2) 

"bi" is the "top" byte. Following the chart, if the top 3 

pixels of the screen are INK then the value assigned to "b1" 

will be 224+28+3=255. Therefore, all top 8 pins of the print 
head will fire] 

60 LET b2=128*POINT (x,y-2)+112*POINT (x,y-3)+14*POINT (x,y-4) 

+POINT (x,y-5) 

"b2" is the "middle" byte. Following the chart, if the 

pixels 3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th from the top of the screen are 

all INK then "b2" is assigned a value of 128+112+14+1=255. 

Therefore, the middle 8 pins will all fire] 

70 LET b3=192*POINT (x,y-5)+56* POINT (x,y-6)+7*POINT (x,y-7) 

"b3" is the bottom byte. Following the chart, if the pixels 

6th, 7th & 8th from the top of the screen are INK then "b3" 

will be assigned a value of 192+56+7=255. Therefore, the 
bottom 8 pins will all fire] 

80 RESTORE 80: GO SUB 500: NEXT x: DATA b1,b2,b3,b1,b2,b3,999 

send the 3 bytes to the printer twice for double density] 

90 INPUT;: PRINT #0;x: NEXT x [clears the bottom of the screen 

then prints the pixel column # to let you know that the 

computer is calculating the data bytes. Gets the next col #] 

100 RESTORE 100: GO SUB 500: STOP: DATA 13,10,999 

send CARRIAGE RETURN and Line Feed] 

500 READ a: IF a=999 THEN RETURN 

999 is a dummy value to signal the end of current data] 

510 IF IN 127<>236 THEN GO TO 510 [if the printer is busy, wait 
until it is ready for data. (<INPUT;> is a simple way of 
clearing the bottom 2 lines of the screen)] 

520 OUT 127,a: GO TO 500 [send data to the printer] 

9999 RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE "11dem.B1" 

Now <GO TO 9999> to save it to disk and then <RUN> 

It takes nearly a minute to get to the actual printing because 
of all the calculations to be done in BASIC. 

If you want to print a whole screen, make the following changes: 

LINE 10: Replace with: 10 LET ctr=0: RANDOMIZE USR 100: LOAD 
"screen name" SCREENS 
['ctr' will keep track of the print line being 
processed] 
LINE 40: Replace <LET y=175> with <FOR y=175 TO 7 STEP -8: LET 
ctr=ctr+1:> 
[This will set up a loop to deal with all 22 screen 
lines and increment the line counter] 
LINE 90: Add <ctr;",";> immediately after <PRINT #0;> 
LINE 100: Add <NEXT y:> immediately ahead of <STOP:> 
LINE 9999: Change program name 
LINEs 40 and 100 set up a loop to look at all 22 lines of the 
upper screen, outputting the data to the printer at the end of 
each line. A full screen takes over 20 minutes to copy. 


To print out in triple density, change the data in line 30 to 
27,42,39,0,3 and add another set of b1,b2,b3 to the data in line 


45 


80. The printer will then expect 3x256 bit image data bytes. 

A much faster version gets the data from the screen file 
instead of the screen. It puts the data into 1 or 22 line files, 
ready to be loaded from disk then sent to the printer by a 
205-byte m/c routine. It takes about 5 minutes to create and 
save the 22 files and less than one minute to print them all in 
triple density. 

I will be happy to send you a copy of this utility ona 
5-1/4" double sided floppy in either Oliger or LARKEN format for 
$5.00 cash or money order. Be sure to state which DOS. 

A full screen produces an image 4.25" by 2.9" (10.8 by 7.4 mm) 
and is proportioned so that squares are square and circles are 
round. Different screen images can be printed consecutively on 
the same sheet so that a composite image can be 4.25" by any 
length. 


8-PIN TO 24-PIN CONVERSION CHART 
FOR A 24-PIN PRINTER WITH EPSON EMULATION 


v 
Hw 
z 
at 
Q 
fe} 
og 
m 


TOP 


(BIT 7)> 224 


“TOP BYTE" 


"MIDDLE" BYTE 


NONKRWNM= BYRON 
wo 


DIYDHAROWN=O 
a 
fo} 


"BOTTOM" BYTE 


46 


47 


HINTS & TIPS 


Memory expansion 


he Z-88 has an almost 

unprecedented array of op- 

tions to expand its available 

memory. For the user new to 

computing or to the Z-88, 
there may seem a bewildering 
choice, Which is more suitable? 
With the chance of making a 
costly mistake, advice surely is 
needed. 

RAM, The Z-88 has 32K of built- 
in RAM of which about 20K is 
usable. That means it can store 
20,000 characters of information, 
which amounts to  3,000-4,000 
words or roughly five pages of 
text. The RAM acts as everyday 
memory and the disc memory of a 
larger computer. It is by far the 
most versatile expansion and 
would be the most natural first 
choice for the majority of users. 

The RAM may be expanded by 
adding extra packs which slot in 
the front. There are three slots, 
each of which can take up to 1MB 
of RAM but the largest pack 
available at the moment is 128K. 
So, in theory, one could have three 
128K packs which together with 
the computer internal memory 
would give 404K. This, however, is 
not recommended for two 
reasons. The power drain of the 
three RAMS, especially the one in 
the third slot, would reduce 


battery life significantly. There 
would be no spare slots for any 
other kind of pack to be used. 

Many users find 128K satis- 
factory; if you want much more 
immediately-available memory, 
Cambridge Computer is produc- 
ing a 512K RAM pack in March. 

Because of their nature, RAM 
packs cannot be removed from 
the Z-88 without losing their 
contents. RAM packs take extra 
current from the Z-88 batteries. A 
128K pack in slot 1 or 2 will take 
about 15 percent more and, 
paradoxically, the 32K slightly 
more than that. The 512K will take 
the same as the 128K. 


“PROM:The second type of 


pack the Z-88 can use is EPROM 
— Erasable Programmable Read 
Only Memory. They can only be 
used in slot 3 and are used for 
backing-up important data or 
programs from the Z-88 RAM. 
They will retain their data even if 
they are removed from the Z-88, 
so in addition to back-up they are 
also ideal for transfer of infor- 
mation between Z-88s. 

There is one snag with 
EPROMs; data is effectively burnt 
on to then and cannot be erased 
selectively. When the EPROM is 
full, one must copy across 
important data to RAM and place 
the EPROM in an EPROM 
ERASER, which completely wipes 
it. It is them ready for filling 
again. Thus due to the nature of 
EPROMs, if you have a file on the 
EPROM you have altered, you 
must ‘blow’ an entirely new copy 
on to it — you can use the same 
name though, the old one becom- 
ing effectively useless until 
erased. 

ROM: The third, and least 
common at the moment, kind of 
card is a ROM card. This would 
contain an external application, 
for example, a database or 
communications program. It 
would be integrated with the Z-88 
operating system, so one could 
call it from the INDEX as if it 
were built-in; it would use the 
same Menu and Help system. 

Technical note — What the Z-88 
terms a ROM card may techni- 
cally be a ROM or EPROM. The 
difference between that and a Z-88 
EPROM lies in what has been 
programmed into its header, so 
that the Z-88 knows that it must 
run an ROM, and can save data on 
to an EPROM. 


Rechargeable batteries 
with the Z-88 


cad cells and the fact that, even when 
fully-charged, they contain less energy 


here is no fundamental reason 


why you cannot use 
rechargeable batieries with the 
Z-88, as many people have dis- 
covered, but there are two points 
you should take into account carefully 
before deciding to use them 
You will not get nearly 20 hours of 
life from them This is because of the 
lower maximum voltage (5.2V) of ni- 


than alkaline cel 

‘The voltage against time graph for 
ni-cad cells tails off very quickly after a 
certain time, the upshot of this being 
that you could leave your seemingly 
healthy batteries in your Z-88 in sleep 
mode for a few days only to return and 
find them completely dead 


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QoonooooooOoooog@onoOoobobgbdbd02g02g2002bN02goOgIoOIoa 


QL SURVIVORS SOURCE BOOK 


2ND EDITION -- This book contains worldwide lists of all QL BOOKS; PERIODICALS; 
BULLETIN BOARDS; USER GROUPS; HARDWARE and SOFTWARE DEALERS, PUBLIC 
DOMAIN and SHAREWARE SUPPLIERS. Nowhere else can you find all of this data in 
one easy to use source. This is a work of ait by the same great folks that brought you 
IQLR, and offered by UPDATE Magazine. When we sell out of current stock it will be gone. 
Itis now available for only $10.00 US$, and this now includes all postage and handling in 
the North and South American areas. Order now and it will be shipped to you by either 
First Class Mailor Priority Mail; no more waiting around for slow UPS delivery! Whatever 
itis you are looking to buy for your QL, this will tell you where to look for it, along with 
phone and fax numbers, as well as addresses. 


QOooog00oOQ000oO0oOO OOO OoOoOoOQoOoOoOo0g0O0OO0O00020202 


Z88 SOURCE BOOK 


This book was compiled by Tim Swenson and published by UPDATE Magazine, and was 


designed to be a good and concise reference book on the Z88; how to interface it with the 
rest of the worlds computers; what products are available for it and where to find them. It 
will not replace your Z88 user guide, Dut willinstead supplement it, and fill in areas that 
were rnissing by putting all this information in one easy to use book. When you order it we 
also include a disk of utilities and programs that are discussed in the book. This is 
available in the following formats: QL in 3 1/2 1440 or 2880 sector disks; QL in 5 1/4 720 or 
1440 sector disks; IBM 360K 5 1/4 disks; IBM 720K 5 1/4 disks; IBM 720K 3 1/2 disks; 
IBM 1.4 meg 3 1/2 disks. Please let us know with your order which type and size of disk 
you need. The price for all of this is $7.00 US$, which includes P. & H. in North America, 
and elsewhere $7.00 US§ plus $2.00 US$ for the additional postage we have to pay. We 
will accept for foreign orders the cash equivalent, plus 10% for conversion, if you are 
unable te obtain a money order or travelers check in US$. We want to make this 
information widely available, so we are trying to be as flexible as possible. 


QQQOQQOQ00O0O0OOOQOOOoOoOoOOgoOoOOOOOOOoOoOoOo0000002 


QL UPDATE ISSUE DISKS 

These disks contain at least one major piece of software written 
specifically for disk drive and are guaranteed to be worth the 
money. The rest of the disks are filled with various utility 
programs taken from the issues of UPDATE and a few surprises 
thrown in. Half of the money goes to the author and is meant to 
encourage new programs for the QL. Some of the programs take 
advantage of Tool Kit 2 by Tony Tebby. All are 20.00, except 
QLuster, which is $15.00; includes P & H, add $1.00 
CAN.Available as 3 1/2 or 5 1/4 disks. Add $5.00 for mailing to 
other countries. We accept personal checks, company checks, 
money orders as well as International Postal Money Orders, but 
no charge cards. If ordering on MDV, then please include one 
that is already formatted, so we will know it will run on your 
QL. Due to the expense of MDVs this is necessary. If two MDVs 
are required we will state so in the ad. 


1) HARTUNG UTILITY ISSUE DISK- Several excellent programs such 
as stand alone data base, Address, and QSO files. All are in 
Superbasic. Lots of hints and tricks for programmers. Requires 
some knowledge of Superbasic or a yen to learn. Recently updated 
by Bob Hartung. Address file can be used as inventory program. 
It can print out labels. Both screen or paper printouts can be 
by Alpha sort, or be by last name. 


2) CABLE ARCHIVE ISSUE DISK- Contains six Archive Programs along 
with Doc files to get you going on making use of the Archive 
programming language. Also has Tasket, plus Doc file, to give 
you multi-tasking on your QL (much cheaper than QRAM or 
Taskmaster). Included is Arithmetic, a Superbasic program for 
math, along with math drills. This is for both the advanced and 
beginner user and greatly extends the use of Archive. To order 
on microdrive send two formatted microdrives, too much for one! 


3) QLUSTER ISSUE DISK by Al Feng- Ql utilities to unclutter your 
disks and microdrives. COPY, DELETE, FORMAT, PRINT, VIEW, plus 
extended use of some Tool Kit 2 commands. TK2 is required. These 
are TURBO compiled for speed. Multitasks and uses minimal key 
presses. Includes Fast-Disk and Vegemat2, a super clone making 
program. Also Snap Shot-a directory column or condensed printout 
program. 


4) DOS EMULATOR COMPANION ISSUE DISK by Al Feng- Just released 
in Oct. issue. Makes better use of Solution, PC Conqueror, 
DisCover, XOVER, QLuster and scr_codes. If you are going to use 
the emulators, then check this out, you won't regret this buy. 


5) QLuMSi DOS by Al Feng~ a MSDOS simulator and front end 
program for the QL, also includes other programs by AL Feng for 
file management and cloning of programs. A Great Learning Tool 


6) QL COMPENDIOM- a three disk collection of utilities for the 
QL, taken from the various short programs in UPDATE, plus file 
compression, decompression, E_Forth for the QL, C utilities such 
as FLEX and YACC, Tcopye, Quad format,etc. All for only $20.00 


UPDATE COMPUTER SYSTEMS invites you to submit software programs 
that may become Issue Disks. Please submit program on disk, with 
documentation and article to accompany the program. We are here 
to get North American software available and known. 


TS2068 UPDATE ISSUE DISKS 


These disks contain at least one major piece of software written 
specifically for disk drive and are guaranteed to be worth the 
money. The rest of the disks are filled with various utility 
programs taken from the issues of UPDATE anda few surprises 
thrown in. Half of the money goes to the author and is meant to 
encourage new programming for the TS2068 that makes use of the 
various disk drive systems. All are $20.00 per disk (add $1.00 
Canada) except where noted in the listing. Postage and handling 
is included. Both 3 1/2 and 5 1/4, 40 and 80 track available. 
Please add $5.00 for mailing to other countries. We accept 
personal checks, company checks, money orders. No charge cards 
please. 


1) NEW! PAYROLL by Jim Bretz. Payroll record program for 
employers,for the Larken System. Allows for accurate processing 
and use of employee earnings and tax records, etc. 


2) Bob Hartung DOSDEX UTILITY ISSUE DISK, a complete disk 
management group of programs for the Oliger Interface only. This 
includes Multi-Manager for file handling. This collection has 
recently been updated and expanded. 


3) MAIL MERGE ISSUE DISK, Oct 87 and Jan &8 issues of UPDATE 
utilities added to filj out this disk. Includes a tutor program 
for the Mail Merge program, List Looker, Purity, J-Utilities and 
Extra Memery Utilities. Larken, Oliger and Aerco versions. 


4) wWiDJUP'S CAD PROGRAM, this will give you professional resuits 
from your TS2068 for computer aided design. Authored by William 
J. Pedersen, perhaps the NO.1 authority on the inner workings of 
the 1S2068. This program can be used to create user friendly 
printed circuit boards, computer art or desktop publishing files 
It does not need expanded memory cartridges and is available in 
four versions: (a) Oliger for either IBM compatible printers or 
fox the Olivetti Ink Jet. (b) Larken for IBM compatible printers 
or the Olivetti Ink Jet printer. Please specify version. 


5) OLIGER DISK DRIVE BBS PROGRAM, this allows users of the 
Oliger interface to be able to operate a disk based builetin 
board from the TS2068. The disk is also- filled with many other 
Oliger disk routines and tips on using the Oliger System. 
Written by Paul Hoimgren. Can use upto four DSOD disk drives. 


6)The HYBISCUS ENSEMBLE, consisting of two separate, but 
complimentary sets of programs. A) Daisy.B6 Ensemble, and B) 
Udbm.B6 Ensemble. LKDOS only, $22 each or $36 for both. The best 
file and database available for Larken, by Bill Jones. The price 
remains the same on this one, no change. Wordprocessor included. 


7) TS2068 Super Calc by Bill Jones. Available in both Larken and 
Oliger formats. Handles loans, amortization, savings and fixed 
investments, plus a calculator and all for only $15 


UPDATE COMPUTER SYSTEMS invites you to submit software programs 
that may become Issue Disks. Please submit program on disk, with 
documentation and article to accompany the program. Our goal is 
to get North American software available and known. We also 
solicit minor programs, tips and utilities for print.